The Legend of Spyro: Of Light and Shadow Book 1
by Archangel1225
Summary: Spyro and Cynder stopped Malefore and everything is going to be okay, right? Unfortunately evil does not die so easily. Spyro now finds himself amongst new friends, trying to solve the mystery of this new enemy who has found a way to bring Malefore back.
1. Chapter 1

**This story takes place after the events of DOTD. Please know that I have only played through DOTD and not the first two in the series, so please do not bite my head off if I mess up on a date. This is also the first time I have ever attempted to write an actual book, so if it's bad, it's due to my lack of experience. Lastly this story might get a little strange but it should all make sense later on…I hope. That said, the following story is rated T for excessive violence and language.**

Chapter one

Prelude

2 years before Spyro and Cynder defeated Malefore

"We must hurry." A mysterious creature calmly stated. It stood on two legs and was about six feet tall with five fingers on each hand and clothed in black leather armor and black leather gloves with a hood that covered it's face. His voice indicated that he was a male. "Let's begin." A large machine sat in the middle of an alcove that was lit with several lanterns. The cave they had been residing in for the past few months was dug into a cliff about ten miles from the dragon city of Warfang. Orcs patrolled the various corridors and outcroppings. They were about five feet tall and there skin was scorched black and almost rock hard after having lived their whole lives on the burning plains. Two small black horns on either side of their head only added to their ferocious appearance.

The creature looked to the left of the machine towards a young green dragon who lay unconscious upon a table made of dark crystal. He approached the dragon and ordered the two orcs standing behind him to attach the wires from the machine to the dragon's head. The dragon groaned in agony as the orcs pulled the lever that activated the machine.

The gears of the mechanism began to spin and purple streaks of lightning arched around the room. The lightning converged into a single beam that struck the floor in front of the machine. The beam emanated a bright light, causing the creature and the orcs to shield their eyes. A long moment passed before the light died down revealing a white portal. The creature stared back down at the dragon as it squirmed in pain. He leaned down and whispered to the dragon "Be grateful that you won't hear the dying screams of your kind."

He then moved to the side toward a wooden table near where the dragon lay. He grabbed his five-foot tall oval shield that he had fashioned out of dark crystal with silver embroidering the center etched with the symbol of his kind: a wolf with the rising sun at it's back. The shield had been well worth the six months hard labor he put into it. Not only could it withstand a number of physical attacks but also any elemental attack that was cast at the shield would prove futile.

After fastening the shield securely to his left arm he then reached for his experimental weapon: a retractable javelin, also made of dark crystal with an iron hilt bound in leather at the center. A small cut from one of these crystals would be harmless to most other creatures as well as the extremely rare purple dragon, but would prove fatal to any other dragon, as there was no known cure for the toxin it expels into the dragons blood stream. A dragon that had been cut with one of these crystals would perhaps have a few hours left, however, if a crystal was to lodge itself into the dragon that time would be drastically reduced to a few minutes. He weighed the javelin in his right hand before fastening it to his belt.

He then turned around and stepped in front of the glowing portal. The two orcs behind him began to step forward. The creature, feeling their movement, raised his hand, halting the orcs in their place. "I'm going alone." The orc guards glanced at each other before stepping back again.

The creature stepped through the portal into a stone chamber that was dimly lit with pale-blue light that came from an hourglass in the center of the room. The walls were lined with books that were alphabetized for easy access. He took a moment to stare at the shimmering blue liquid that filled the hourglass before turning his attention to an old pale-blue male dragon busying himself with reading the books that floated in front of him. He drew his javelin and pressed the small button that was on the hilt, causing it to extend to its full length of six feet. The scraping of the dark crystal against the hilt caused the dragon to whirl around so suddenly that his tail sent the books he had been reading flying in all directions. The dragon bared its teeth and growled at the stranger. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"That is none of your concern, Chronicler." the creature followed up his response with a blast of dark lightning from the palm of his hand. The Chronicler dodged and the lightning struck the wall, which broke and then almost immediately rebuilt itself due to the magic that guarded the library.

The Chronicler charged the stranger and struck with his claws. The stranger dodged and countered, swiping his javelin upward, catching the Chronicler under the ribs and sending him skyward. The Chronicler regained his balance in the air and dove at the stranger who dodged again and then created a tornado that whirled around the room, the Chronicler was caught in the middle of the twister and spun out of control. He held his eyes shut, trying his best not to vomit. The stranger released his grip on the winds causing the Chronicler to slam into the wall and drop on top of a dragon statue. As he began to rise the stranger opened his mouth and breathed a cloud of venom at the statues legs. The venom dissolved the stone and the statue began to crumble.

Seeing the danger the Chronicler leaped into the air. He hovered above the stranger and began shooting fireballs at his opponent. The stranger lifted his arm allowing the fire to glance off his shield. The stranger focused his mind and gathered sound waves in his head before releasing a shock wave of high-pitched noise. The Chronicler fell to the ground, tearing at his ears. He fired another fireball, but this time it hit the ground beside the creature and exploded, breaking his concentration and sending him into the wall.

The Chronicler charged up a beam of convexity with the intent of disintegrating his opponent. The creature saw what was coming and got to his feet quickly. He dropped his javelin, and charged up his own beam of convexity in his hand. The two combatants fired their convexity energy and their beams met in the middle. They both fought for power but were so equally matched that it became a contest of who would tire out first. The Chronicler and the stranger fought to keep themselves from passing out. At last the Chronicler couldn't take any more, he broke away from the attack and the beam struck the wall. The blast threw the Chronicler into a book shelf. "Hmm, and here I thought that you'd be a challenge." the creature sneered.

"Go to Hell." the Chronicler snapped back as he rose to his feet

"I find myself there everyday that I wake up."

"Then let me relieve you." the Chronicler fired a large ball of fire attempting to incinerate his opponent. The creature sank into shadow and the fireball struck the floor where he had been standing a second earlier. The blast shot up dust and debris, blinding the Chronicler for a few moments. As the dust settled the dragon opened it's eyes and scanned the room for signs of life.

"You'll have to do better than that." The dragon turned around only to see the creature seal him in a dark magic barrier. He let loose a deafening roar that shook a few of the surrounding books loose and then attempted to claw his way through his prison.

"Save your strength, dragon." the creature faced the Chronicler and as the dragon examined the stranger before him, and his eyes grew as wide as saucers.

"Y-your a hu-"

"Silence!" at his word, the barrier emitted a small charge of electricity, causing the Chronicler to yelp in pain when the pain subsided the old dragon glared at the stranger, who paid him no mind as he went about searching for his prize.

He walked to the book shelves and ran his finger across the books before stopping and grabbing a rather old and dusty black book from the "H" section.

The Chronicler realized what the stranger was doing and warned him "If you take that book, then your race's history will disappear from the rest of this library"

The stranger replied coldly "I know." he then held the book above his head and watched as small golden orbs traveled from the books on the shelves to the book in his hand. When every orb had been absorbed by the book the stranger turned around and walked towards the still imprisoned Chronicler until they were face to face he waved his hand in front of the dragons face. The dragon felt his eyelids droop as he slipped out of consciousness.

The stranger reached his hands through the barrier and opened the dragons eyelids, his consciousness reached into the dragon's mind and he began attacking the walls that blocked his way into the Chroniclers memory. When the last wall crumbled he then began to collecting any evidence that the book he now had in his possession had ever existed.

After several hours of meticulously picking the dragon's memory he withdrew his mind from the dragon's, pleased with his work. He allowed his barrier to fade, dropping the Chroniclers unconscious body to the floor. He turned and picked up his javelin off the ground and pressed the button on the hilt again causing the javelin to retract again before he clipped it back to his belt and headed back toward the portal, he stopped directly in front of the entrance and glanced around the chamber one more time. "pity" he said aloud to himself "this place will have no further purpose once the dragons have met their end." and the stepped back through the portal.

When the orcs saw the creature come back through the portal they immediately began shutting down the machine, the portal flashed once before disappearing. "Destroy everything in the cave, leave no trace that we were here. We'll leave at dawn" he then fixed his eyes on the young dragon still lying unconscious on the table, the stress from the machine caused blood to run profusely from it's eyes, nose, and mouth. It was convulsing wildly and it's labored breathing was starting to get on the everyone's nerves. The last thing he said as he headed toward the mouth of the cave was, "and will someone please put that disgusting creature out of its misery."

A single orc made its way to the table, raised its sword, pointing the tip at the dragon's sternum. It gave a loud snarl as it plunged it's sword through the dragons ribs, blood sprayed the walls and the dragons eyes shot open in horror, it tried to scream but no sound would come out. It jerked once and then lay still, his eyes closing for the last time. The body faded away and several glowing orbs rose to the ceiling before disappearing into the darkness.

At the mouth of the cave the creature stared with hatred at the distant dragon city, Warfang. He breathed in deep letting the night air fill his lungs and allowing his wrath to subside before looking to his right and seeing a small dark crystal protruding from a nearby wall, he reached his hand towards it. The crystal wiggled before shooting out of the wall and into the creatures open hand. He twirled it in his fingers before black lightning enveloped his hand. He drained the dark energy from the crystal allowing his strength to replenish. When he was done the crystal had turned from an eerie purple to a jet-black. He let the crystal drop from his hand and, upon impact with the ground, it crumbled to dust.

He then looked at the book that was laying in his lap. He opened it only to find that the pages were blank. "As I suspected," he thought to himself, "only a dragon can read the books of the chronicler's library. Not that it matters, as long as I have this book those damned beasts won't know anything."

"What's our next move? "The creature looked over his shoulder to see Gwar, general of the orcs, standing behind him. His horns were bigger than the other orcs showing domination over his troops.

"That depends, how far has Malefore gotten in his quest?"

"The Dark Master has just summoned the earth golem and begun preparations to awaken the Destroyer"

"Then we must find a comfortable spot, sit, and wait." The creature stated. "Wasn't there a cave in the Burning Plains we passed on our way here, near Malefore's castle?"

"Yes!" the Orc replied, not hiding his excitement at the thought of returning to the magma fields he calls home.

"Then that's where we'll wait for the end of this miserable world and the birth of a new."

"I'll make sure the troops are ready."

"Good, have a few of them pack my extra armor and personal belongings"

"Yes, sir" the orc growled back. Gwar never liked taking orders from the creature and made no attempts to hide his displeasure whenever he was told to do something. He only did what he was told because Malefore had put him and his battalion of orcs under the creature's command.

Gwar was preparing to leave when the creature spoke again. "Do you believe the prophecy? "Gwar turned his head unsure of what he meant. Sensing his uncertainty the creature continued "Rumors are going around amongst your troops about a prophecy that states that purple dragon would rise up and destroy Malefore. I'm assuming that it's talking about the dragon that killed that foolish ape king Gaul, Spyro."

"I do not indulge in such trivial things." the orc said smugly "but even if I did, the dark master's power only grows by the day. So, no I do not believe the prophecy in which you speak of, even if that dragon is running around with your precious Cynder."

The creature shot up and punched the orc general in the gut causing him to drop to his knees and grip his stomach. "Listen well orc," the creature began "if you think that I consider something as foul as a dragon 'precious' then you are sadly mistaken, do I make myself clear?" the orc glared at the creature before nodding. "Good" the creature said as he sat back down at the mouth of the cave.

"Will that be all?" Gwar asked through clenched teeth.

"Dismissed"

When Gwar had limped out of sight the creature breathed deeply. His thoughts drifted to Cynder. Malefore had put her into the creatures care as soon as she had hatched, for what purpose he was still unsure. Malefore had said that since the dark crystal experiments had given the creature the elemental powers of a black dragon, it had made him the ideal mentor, but it seemed more likely that Malefore just wanted to see if the creature could put aside his burning hatred for the dragons if only for a little while. Not only did the creature put aside his hatred, he also started to bond with the dragoness, treating her as if she was his own daughter, and almost completely forgetting that she was a dragon, and Cynder seemed to return his affection. That was, of course, before Malefore had ordered the creature to wipe her memory, as he needed her ruthless and devoid of such emotion to be able to corrupt her.

He then thought of the last time he saw her. It was at the top of her castle fighting Spyro just before disappearing into the realm of convexity to free Malefore. "I wonder if she's safe?" the creature thought to himself. "Wait, what do I care? As far I'm concerned she's sided with the enemy, and I will be damned if I let our past history get in the way of me striking her down." He then stood up, looked out at Warfang one more time before walking toward his bedchamber.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Present

The bright sun blinded Sparx as he stepped out of the cave. He looked around before screaming with joy. 'They did it" Sparx exclaimed "I never doubted those two for a second."

"Then why have you been crying for your mother in the corner of the cave for the past two hours?" Cyril asked as he emerged from the darkness with Terrador, Volteer and the mole soldiers.

"Well, because I was just...wait…mom and dad! I gotta go make sure their safe."

"Go on" Terrador said, "we'll wait for you at Warfang, we must begin rebuilding the city." Sparx gave a quick salute before buzzing off toward the east. Terrador then addressed the two other guardians and the moles "Come on, let's go home."

"Yes, yes, simply marvelous, stupendous I can not wait to get back to my books." Volteer said, "Oh, I can feel my brain going numb from the lack of education."

"Oh, ancestors!" Cyril exclaimed "Tell me I don't have to listen to you all the way back to Warfang."

Sparx flew as fast as he could, trying to find the cave that he had led his village to. "Where the hell is it?" he said, kicking himself for not paying attention to the location of the cave.

After a few more minutes of he saw a faint glow coming from one of the caves. As he fluttered closer, the dragonfly sighed with relief.

The multicolored dragonflies all turned to greet Sparx as he entered the cave. When he saw his parents he immediately zipped to them.

"Mom, dad, your okay!" Sparx exclaimed.

"Well, It's gonna take more than the end of the world to take me down." His Father boasted.

His mother just shook her head, "Anyway, so where is your brother, Spyro?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," Sparx explained, "he went with Cynder to go stop Malefore."

"So your telling me that Spyro, our son, saved the entire planet?" his mom asked with wide eyes.

"Well, you know, I helped too." Sparx said somewhat insulted

"Of course you did honey, and we are so proud of both of you." his mother said pinching Sparx's cheek.

"Oh, you know, all in a days work" Sparx said, rubbing his knuckles against his chest.

"So, who's this _Cynder?" _his father asked.

"A crazy, black dragoness that almost killed us" Sparx said, "Oh, and Spyro secretly has a crush on her."

"Thats my boy." Sparx's father said proudly before addressing the crowd of dragonflies "Listen up everyone, it's safe now, time to go back to the swamp" The crowd erupted in a massive cheer and the dragonflies began flying out of the cave "Are you coming with us, son?" he asked Sparx.

"Well I suppose I could spend a few days back home before going back to Warfang."

"Splendid." His mother said "think I have enough ingredients for my butterfly casserole"

Sparx licked his lips at the thought of his favorite dish, "Well, what are we waiting for?" he asked before he and his parents zipped out of the cave.

Meanwhile the dragons and the moles had arrived at Warfang. They were relieved to find that, besides a few fallen towers and a massive hole in the wall, the rest of the city remained untouched.

"Oh, thank the ancestors!" Volteer said as they came across the city's library that only had a few black marks from the soot of the battle.

"Right, well I'm glad that this puts _your _mind at ease," Cyril said sarcastically "but I'm more interested in the temple. You remember don't you, Volteer? It's the place with the pool of visions, the center of the city, where all our important meetings are held."

"Must you always act like such a jackass." Volteer snapped back.

"Only when I'm around you."

"Would you two stop bickering like a pair of old life-mates!" Terrador intervened.

When they had reached their destination all three guardians were relieved to find that the temple remained unharmed. As they moved into the main hall Terrador began instructing the other two guardians. "Cyril, I need you to examine the bedchambers and dining hall. Volteer, I need you to check the training grounds and the classrooms I'm going to check the ballroom and the healer's den. Meet me at the pool of visions." The other two dragons nodded before taking off down different hallways.

Little did any of them know, that in the wastes of the burning plains a foreboding black fortress stood high on the volcanic mountain where Malefore's castle used to be.

Gwar, the orc general was walking down towards the center of the complex. His head was hung low and he dreaded every step that he took, as he knew that he was about to look like fool. He pushed open the double doors to the inner sanctum, where the hooded creature was waiting in front of a large sheet of dark crystal. "Sir," Gwar began, "I'm afraid that the dark master has..."

The creature raised his hand silencing the orc "I know of Malefore's situation. Do you know how I know? It's because we all should have been dead about four hours ago!" a dark aura began emanating from the creature and purple streaks of dark lightning began radiating from his body "Do you know how long a thousand years is? Because that's how long I have waited to see the end of those murderous dragons!" The orc began to step backwards in fear before the creature let his anger subside. The purple aura disappeared and the lightning retreated back to the creature's body. "But what's worse yet, is that your scouts now tell me that there are many more dragons alive that had fled to some ancient underground cities when Malefore attacked." The creature stated before turning away from the orc and staring at the giant sheet if dark crystal.

"Is there any way we can bring the dark master back?" the orc asked.

"Come here." the creature said. The orc obeyed and stood beside the creature, "Look." the orc followed his gaze and gasped when he saw the dark master floating unconscious in the dark crystal sheet before them.

"Can he be released?" the orc asked.

"Follow me." the creature led the orc to a door on the left side of the chamber. As they went through the door, the orc found four machines, about the size of a normal orc. Each one had a dark crystal in the center and looked the same except that each had a different symbol etched into the center: a lightning bolt, a snowflake, a rock, and a flame. "First we need to set these machines up where each individual element is in the highest concentration." the creature explained.

"And then?" Gwar asked

"We'll get to that after the machines are activated."

"Then I will personally escort them to their destinations."

"No" the creature said abruptly "you will send your second in command and half of your troops to complete this task."

"Then...what am I to do?"

"You will keep your eye on Malefore, as he will be quite upset when he wakes up."

"But, sir..."

"I believe that Malefore put you under my command. Am I mistaken?"

Defeated, the orc replied "No, sir."

"Good"

"May I ask what you will be doing?"

"Why? Do you believe that I will just sit on my ass and watch you orcs do all the work?" The creature's response caught the orc off guard, since that was exactly what the orc thought the creature was going to do. "I will be surveying the land and taking note of where the other dragon cities are. Since the destroyer can't be reawakened for another two thousand years, we will have to kill the dragons the old-fashioned way…with steel and, in my case, dark crystal."

"Why can't you make me and my soldiers dark crystal weapons?"

"I can" the creature replied plainly "but my people believe that the best weapon, is one forged by your own hand."

"But we do not share your beliefs."

"You do when you're under my command."

Gwar wanted to retaliate, but knew that the creature may be the only hope of bringing back the dark master. "I will have my troops leave immediately."

"See that its done," the orc turned to leave but was stopped mid-step as the creature spoke again "and Gwar, we can not afford another failure."

"I understand" the orc replied before leaving the chamber.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Uhh" Cynder groaned as her eyelids cracked open. She was lying on her side and her body ached from fighting. She made an attempt to stand, but was far too dizzy to maintain her balance. She gave it several more tries before giving up. She then took the time to better examine her surroundings. She could make out tree trunks and came to the conclusion that she was in the forest of Avalar. She heard a twig snap nearby and shot up. This time she was able to stay on her feet as she stared at the direction of the noise. Her eyes widened as a familiar purple dragon stepped through the bushes with a lamb carcass in its mouth. "Spyro!"

"Oh, good your awake" Spyro said after he set down the carcass. "I was starting to get a little worried." Spyro had actually been worried sick about her all day, but he wasn't going to let her know that. "Hungry?"

Cynder was about to answer, but her stomach answered for her, by growling quite loudly, causing Cynder's cheeks to turn red and making Spyro laugh.

"I guess I am." she said smiling.

"Okay." Spyro nodded

It didn't take long for Spyro to cook the sheep using his flame breath, and it took even less time for the two dragons to devour the meat. Spyro found that he couldn't take his eyes off of the black dragoness as she finished off the last of her sheep leg.

Cynder looked at Spyro, who immediately glanced away, "Is everything okay?" she asked

"Y-yeah" Spyro said, "It's just..."

"Come on," Cynder said as she rose up and sat in front of him staring into his purple eyes "you can tell me anything."

"Well, back in the volcano you told me that you loved me, and I was wondering if you still felt that way."

Cynder's cheeks turned a deep shade if crimson and she found herself unable to look at him. A long moment passed before she gathered enough courage to speak "Yes, I do. What about you do you feel the same?"

Spyro took a deep breath before saying "Yes, I love you too, and I would be honored if you would be my mate."

Instead of answering with words, Cynder pressed her lips against Spyro's and they shared a long, passionate broke away, and looked at the ground shamefully, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Spyro said lifting her head up with his paw, "I liked it...a lot."

"Well...Maybe we could do it again sometime."

Spyro chuckled and sat beside her. He draped his wing around her and they stared at the clouds that rolled above them. "So, what should we do now?" Cynder asked.

"Well, eventually we have to get back to Warfang," Spyro replied "but I don't see why we can't spend a couple of nights out here." he then gave her a flirty look and said "It'll give us the chance to...explore each other more"

Cynder gave him her own flirty look and said, "Sounds like a good idea to me, lover boy."

Back at Warfang, the guardians met at the pool of visions in the meeting hall in the highest tower of the temple. "I counted only two bedchambers that were badly damaged and the dining hall is still in one piece." Cyril stated.

"The classrooms are in excellent condition and, after summoning a few training dummies, it seems the training grounds are still fully functional." Volteer reported.

"A few pillars have crumbled in the ballroom, but the healers den remains untouched." Terrador said.

"Thank the ancestors." Cyril said with a sigh of relief "It should only take us a few weeks to restore the city to its former glory."

"Yes, yes indeed, we should get the moles to start the repairs right away." Volteer said

"Aren't we forgetting someone?" Terrador asked.

The other to guardians looked at each other for a moment before saying simultaneously "Spyro, Cynder, and Ignitus!"

"We must conduct a search for them immediately." Cyril said. "Who knows what trouble they might be in."

"Don't worry too much about them, old friend." a familiar voice said, causing the three guardians to jump

"Who's there?" Terrador asked, getting into an attack position

"I don't think I need to answer that." The voice replied.

"I-Ignitus?" Cyril asked

"Its good to see you all again."

"Ignitus, where are you?" Terrador asked.

"Look in the pool of visions."

The three guardians turned and cautiously approached the pool. They looked down to see their old friend smiling back at them.

"Ignitus!" Terrador exclaimed. "What happened to you?" he asked when he saw that the dragons bright orange scales had turned a pale blue color.

"Well…it would seem that I have been selected to be the new Chronicler." Ignitus replied.

"Stupendous, amazing, unbelievable!" Volteer exclaimed "To think, that my friend, who I've known since I was a hatchling, has the honor of recording the history of our race!"

"Its nice to see that you haven't changed much, Volteer." Ignitus chuckled.

'Tell me about it." Cyril remarked

"What about Cynder and Spyro, do you know their whereabouts?" Terrador asked.

"I do," Ignitus began, "but you should not worry about them, as they will come back to Warfang when they are ready. For now we have more pressing matters to attend to."

"What have you learned?" Terrador asked.

"There are many other dragon colonies who have fled to the ancient underground cities of our forefathers, when the dark master first struck."

The guardians' mouths fell open at the thought of other dragons. "H-how many other colonies?" Cyril stuttered

"Five." Ignitus replied, "The three smaller ones seem to be comprised of about five-hundred dragons each, while the two larger ones have around one-thousand each."

"We must dispatch messengers immediately to see if we can gather them here." Volteer stated "Ignitus, you wouldn't happen to know which ancient cities these colonies reside in, would you?"

"I'm glad you asked" Ignitus replied. He then looked away from them for a second before turning back and saying "The colonies are at Volk, Scianna, Roethor, Zenneth, and Adelade. You three know where these cities are, correct?"

"Yes, we do." Terrador replied, "We will send moles immediately."

"Good, now if you all will excuse me, I must contact Spyro, there is a matter of great importance that concerns him."

"Okay, in the meantime we must repair the city for our new guests." Cyril stated.

"I will keep in touch." Ignitus said as his face faded away in the pool.

At the Black Fortress, Gwar sat with his back turned from Malefore's unconscious body. "Damn that insolent creature." he snarled to himself "I'm a general, I should be out there with my troops, not stuck in here watching the dark master like a damn babysitter! What I wouldn't give to be able to sink my blade into his back."

"You may have your chance soon enough, Gwar" a voice said from behind the orc.

Gwar whirled around to see that Malefore had regained consciousness. "My lord." The orc said as he knelt before Malefore.

"Rise," Malefore said, "and tell me of what has become of the world."

Before the orc could speak, another voice cut into the conversation. "Ah, good your awake." The hooded creature stepped out from the shadows into the open room.

"Its good to see you again, Leon." Malefore said as he stared at the hooded creature, "Although I wish that it wasn't from behind this crystal. Where am I anyway?"

"Well, _we_ are located in an old fortress close to where your castle used to stand," Leon began, "however, _you _have been trapped in a realm that has been created by the dark crystals, your own personal prison,If you will, courtesy of a dragon who thought he was a dragonfly for the first few years of his life."

"For your information, your daughter, Cynder, helped him. I was outnumbered and _you_ were nowhere to be found."

"First of all, don't you ever call her my daughter again!" Leon said as his temper began to flare at the very thought of the black dragoness, "Second, I believe you told me to stay out of your way…I was just following your orders, but I should have known better than to leave you by yourself."

Malefore's patience had run its course with Leon, and he decided that at his next opportunity, he was going to end Leon's life. Then Malefore's eyes fell upon the scroll in Leon's hand, "What's that?" Malefore asked pointing at the scroll.

"Hmm? Oh yes, I almost forgot." Leon said before grabbing a wooden table and standing it in front of Malefore and Gwar. He unfurled the scroll onto the table. It was a map of the various islands on the planet with several locations circled and several locations with Xs. "It would seem that during our dragon hunt, we missed a few thousand of the accursed beasts."

"You lie." Malefore said in shock.

"Why would I?"

"How did they escape my sight for so long?"

"They made their own colonies in the underground cities, I circled them on this map."

"Then what about the Xs?"

"Well since we can't get your elemental powers back from the guardians, I've made machines that can take them from nature itself. Their locations are marked with the Xs."

"So I'll be at my full power when I get out of here?"

"That and more."

"More?" Malefore asked as he listened with extreme interest.

"I believe that you might be strong enough to handle the same power I wield, and I think I've found a way of giving it to you…but we'll get to that after the orcs have finished activating the last two machines."

"Hmm, now I remember why I chose you as my partner."

"Don't get used to it, as soon as this is over, you and Gwar are on your own." Leon said before turning and walking out of the chamber.

When Leon was out of sight Malefore turned his attention back to Gwar and said, "Don't worry, my friend. He is not long for this world."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Spyro found himself in a familiar room, with shelves of books and a large hourglass that sat in the center. It didn't take long for Spyro to realize where he was. "Chronicler!" Spyro called as he searched for the old dragon.

"I am here." A familiar voice stated.

Spyro turned around to see Ignitus smiling at him from beside a wooden desk. "I-Ignitus!" Spyro exclaimed. He ran to his old mentor and hugged him around his foreleg, tears of joy flowed from his eyes.

"It's good to see you again young dragon," Ignitus said, giving him a reassuring pat on the head. "but I'm afraid that time is of the essence."

Spyro released his embrace and watched as a book floated beside the two of them, Ignitus opened the book to reveal an image of many dragons heading toward the open gates of Warfang. Spyro felt his consciousness being pulled into the pages of the book and soon found himself hovering over the scene, as the moles and the three guardians stood by the gates welcoming the newcomers with expressions of pure joy across their faces. When Spyro came back to his body he looked at Ignitus in disbelief. "I-I have to go back and tell Cynder."

"Patience, young dragon. There is something else I'd like to discuss with you, and I fear it may not be good news." Ignitus said, his expression darkening.

Spyro felt his heart sink. He had just defeated the dark master, and now the thought of news that wasn't good dismayed him. "What's going on?" he asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. Here, look at this." Ignitus said as the book flipped to a different page.

Spyro stared with confusion at the page that was completely black. After a moment, he looked back at Ignitus and asked "What could this mean?"

"I'm not sure about that either, young one. But this isn't the only book with one of these pages." He then summoned a few more books from the shelves and opened them to show more black pages, occasionally there were several of them in one book. "This is troubling."

"So, what should we do?"

"You and Cynder should probably return to Warfang. I will continue to see if there is an answer to this phenomenon somewhere in the library. I will, of course, contact you if I should find anything." The room suddenly darkened and began to fade. "Take heart, young dragon. Your journey is not yet at it's end."

"Spyro!" Cynder yelled trying to shake the dragon awake. Spyro opened his eyes and then lurched up so suddenly that he caused Cynder to lose her balance and trip over her own tail, nearly cutting herself with her tailblade.

"Oh my gosh!" Spyro said when he realized what he had done; "Cynder, I'm sorry." he rushed over to help his dragoness to her feet.

"It's okay," she said "you just startled me." She gave him a reassuring smile before saying, "You've been groaning in your sleep for the past hour now, what were you dreaming about?"

Spyro remembered what had transpired in his dream, "Oh yeah, your not gonna believe this."

Spyro spent the next half hour telling his mate about Ignitus, the other dragons, and the mysterious black pages in the history books. When he was finished, Cynder's mouth hung open, at a loss for words.

"We have to get back to Warfang." Spyro stated, snapping Cynder from her trance.

"R-right." She stammered.

Spyro flapped his wings hard, and shot through the forest canopy with Cynder following close behind.

The treetops rushed below them as they headed due east. They had spent a week in the forest and, as much as they enjoyed each other's company, they were ready to be in the presence of other dragons.

At Warfang the three guardians looked on at the courtyard that had been filled to its capacity by dragons, and the moles were still ushering more in.

"Astonishing, unbelievable, astronomical. To think that this many dragons have been able to escape the dark master's sight for so long, it simply blows my mind." Volteer said.

"Yes well, as happy as I am to know that dragon kind has prospered through these dark times, were still going to run into the obvious problem of where to put all these dragons." Cyril observed.

"Don't worry," Terrador said, "the dragon elders said that most of these dragons will be going home before the day ends. They, like us, just wanted to see how many other dragons survived, and to see what we will do about diplomacy."

"I assume that we're sticking to the original plan." Cyril said

"Indeed." Terrador nodded. They had began thinking about the diplomacy of these dragon cities as soon as Ignitus told them of the other dragon cities, the idea that they had come up with seemed like it would be fair to everyone and even the elders agreed.

"Master Terrador!" The three dragons turned to see a mole soldier running up the stairs to their right. He stopped in front of the dragons and attempted to catch his breath before saying "Spyro and Cynder have just landed at the main gate."

"Right on time as always." Terrador said, "Bring them to the meeting hall, we have much to discuss."

The mole gave a quick salute before heading back down the ramp.

As Spyro and Cynder entered the meeting hall they immediately noticed that along with the four cushioned pedestals on which the guardians sat, there were five smaller pedestals that each looked exactly alike, and on each of them a dragon sat with another dragon and one or two smaller dragons, who looked about Spyro and Cynder's age, close beside them.

"Welcome back." Terrador greeted them from his pedestal.

"We were beginning to worry." Cyril said in an almost scolding manner.

"Of course it looks like our worry was in vain since you don't seem to have sustained any severe injuries while you were gone." Volteer chimed in "However, it seems, Spyro, that you have a bite injury around your neck, any clue to what that might be from?"

Both Spyro and Cynder's faces turned a very deep shade of crimson. Every dragon in the room seemed to understand and the meeting hall roared with laughter.

"Its alright young dragon." Cyril said reassuringly, "We were all well aware of how you two felt about each other."

"We knew that it was just a matter of time before the wave of emotions finally burst forth from the both of you." Volteer assured.

Spyro and Cynder's faces burned even more at what they had just heard.

"Okay, okay." Terrador said as he cleared his throat, "There is actually a matter that concerns you two."

"But first we wish for you to meet the newly formed dragon council." Volteer explained, "These dragons have been elected to speak for their respective cities and have allowed the guardians to act as their head and have the final word in any argument, thus creating a new republic of dragons. I will let the council members introduce themselves."

The first member was a dark blue ice dragon in his prime years with black horns and light blue belly scales "I am Nitro, leader of the dragons at Scianna." He stated, he then indicted to the yellow lightning dragoness sitting behind him "and this is my life-mate, Watt." Watt nodded her head and smiled at the two dragons.

The next was a middle-aged earth dragoness; she had brown scales with green belly-scales. "I am Gaia, leader of the dragons at Roethor, and this…" she indicated to the pale blue ice dragon that sat behind her "is my life-mate, Frigid."

Next was an old fire dragon his scales were red with yellow belly scales and he spoke with an unnaturally kind voice, it almost made Spyro believe that he was related to Ignitus "I am Vulcan, leader of the dragons at Volk, and this is my daughter Ember." He indicated to the much younger pink dragoness behind him.

"I am Boltor," The next dragon started, he was a lightning dragon with golden scales and a light yellow belly "leader of the dragons at Zenneth, and this is my sister, Thundra." She looked like Boltor except she was thinner and lacked horns.

Lastly a black dragon in his prime with large ivory horns spoke "I am Anima, leader of the dragons at Adelade, and this is my life-mate Apathy." The black dragoness nodded and smiled at the two dragons.

"Now then we come to the matter that concerns you two." Terrador started.

"I-I don't feel like I should be included in this." Cynder said. Spyro looked back at her, seeing the emotional pain that swelled inside her. Before Spyro could say anything, Gaia began to speak.

"Young dragoness we know of your previous association with the dark master, but that time is past."

"The dark masters power can turn some of the most good natured dragons into messengers of evil." Vulcan said reassuringly.

"We do not hold you accountable for anything that has been done in the past." Anima added, and the other dragons murmured in agreement.

Cynder looked at the dragons all smiling reassuringly at her. She gave a quiet sob before saying "Thank you."

Spyro walked over and nuzzled her affectionately before turning his attention back to the council. "So, what is it that you wanted from us?"

"Well Spyro we have created another branch of authority under the council," Terrador began "we are calling them 'The Vanguards'."

"Essentially they are our replacements for when we retire," Nitro explained "but until then, they will act as the tooth and claw of the council."

"As you may have noticed," Boltor started "we have not yet introduced our young ones yet. This is because we feel that it is there duty as the new vanguards to introduce themselves to their new captains."

"Wait, us?" Cynder asked.

"If you both choose to accept." Cyril stated.

Spyro and Cynder looked at each other before Spyro asked, "Can we have a minute to think this through?"

"Of course, young dragon." Gaia said

"Thank you." Spyro said. He and Cynder bowed and went out the way they came in. When the iron doors shut behind them Spyro turned to face Cynder. "What do you think?"

"I'm not sure... but I'll follow whatever decision you make." She replied before staring out at the setting sun

"Great, leave the hard decisions to me." He sighed.

Cynder chuckled and nuzzled him under his chin, "I'm sure you'll make the right choice." she assured him.

After a few minutes of thinking they went back into the hall and the council eyed them, eager for their answer. Spyro looked back at his dragoness again before turning to the council. "We accept your offer."

Sighs of relief came from the council, "Well, in that case," Nitro began, "we'll leave the introductions to the vanguards themselves."

First was a light blue ice dragoness, "I am Crystal, Daughter of Nitro and Watt."

Next was a green earth dragoness, "I am Zephyr, Daughter of Frigid and Gaia."

Then a dark red fire dragon and pink dragoness, Spyro could tell that they were siblings "I am Flare." the male said.

"And I am his younger sister, Charlotte." the female said "We are the offspring of Flame and Ember."

Next was a gold colored lightning dragon, "I am Tyranico, but you can call me Twitch. I am the son of Boltor and Voltress."

Lastly, two twin black dragons fell in line, "I am Fang."

"A-and I am S-Sting." The other dragon stuttered rather nervously.

Sensing his brother's nervousness, Fang continued the introduction. "We are the sons of Anima and Apathy."

Spyro stared at the line of dragons in front of him. "It's an honor to be meet you all." He said. The dragons bowed to Spyro and Cynder. Spyro looked over his shoulder to Cynder, who nodded, sensing his intent. "We are all equals here, so we would appreciate it if you guys did not bow to us." The dragons seemed taken aback by the request, but nodded nonetheless.

"These young dragons are a little wet behind the ears in terms of combat." Cyril spoke up, "So we guardians will teach them inside the classroom, while you and Cynder will be taking care of training exercises, if that agrees with you."

Spyro turned to look at Cynder and mouthed "Your turn."

She stepped forward and said, "It would be an honor to train the vanguards."

"Splendid," Terrador said, "then we will start the training bright and early tomorrow, but for now we all must rest, for it has been a long day for all of us."

The vanguards were led to their individual bedchambers on the top floor of the eastern tower of the temple. Spyro and Cynder opted to stay in the same bedchamber.

As they lay beside each other on the large cushion a question burned in the back of Cynder's mind. She looked at Spyro and asked "What's your home like?"

Spyro was slightly surprised at the question. "Well," He began, "I lived in a village of dragonflies so it was small, but still homely. My parents were always so caring and concerned. Maybe…I can take you there someday, if you would like me to, that is."

Cynder gave a slight chuckle before licking him affectionately on the cheek, "I'd love for you to."

Spyro draped his wing over his mate's back and they both drifted into a deep sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Leon sat meditating in his bedchamber when he felt a presence standing in the doorway behind him. "Do you have something to report, Gwar?" he asked without turning his head.

"Sir, the machines have all been placed at your specific locations." The orc replied.

"Have you made sure that they are well guarded?"

"At least one-hundred orcs at each location."

"Good" Leon said as he stood up, "then lets go to Malefore, and tell him that we are almost ready for his return."

As they walked the halls toward the chamber at the center of the fort, Leon could feel Gwar's eyes on his back.

"Is there a problem?" Leon asked, surprising the orc.

"N-no sir." Gwar stammered.

Leon didn't believe him, but pressed on anyway.

When they reached the central chamber, Malefore eyed them from behind the dark crystal sheet. "How are we progressing?" he asked.

"The orcs have just finished placing the machines." Leon began, "now we must use this…" He reached his hand into his satchel and with drew a small white crystal, "This is one of my newest alchemy experiments. By swallowing this you can harness the power that the machines are producing."

"Well… explain to me how I'm going to eat that crystal from here." Malefore said sarcastically.

Leon approached the sheet and stabbed it with the white crystal. There was a blinding flash of light that caused Malefore and Gwar to shield their eyes. When the light died away, Malefore opened his eyes to see the tiny white crystal had passed through the dark crystal.

"Are you quite done thinking that I don't know what I'm doing?" Leon Asked.

Malefore gave him an irritated look before he took the crystal in his paw and examined it. "How do you know that this won't kill me?"

"I don't, but unless you want to spend the rest of eternity in there, then I suggest you swallow the crystal."

"I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer, Leon." Malefore thought to himself, before opening his maw, and forcing down the crystal. At first nothing happened, but then Malefore felt a sharp pain in his stomach. The pain spread through his body, causing him to double over and roar in pain.

"Master!" Gwar yelled as he took a step forward.

"Stay back!" Leon ordered over Malefore's agonizing roar. Dark lightning shot out from the dark crystal and went directly for Leon. Leon rolled to the side as the lightning streaked past. "Run!" he said as he and Gwar rushed for the hallway. As they went through the doorway, Leon turned back to see a blinding white light and felt an explosive force that sent him and Gwar skidding across the floor. When he had come back to his senses he saw the orc general struggling to pick himself up.

As Leon got to his feet, Gwar stared at him with a fierce hatred in his eyes, "You killed him!"

"We don't know that yet." Leon stated. By now, the rest of the orcs had come running down the hall to find the source of the commotion. They stopped in their tracks when they saw Gwar and Leon, both with a few scratches but nothing too serious. "Who told you to leave your posts?" Leon asked without looking at them.

The orcs turned to their general who gave a grunt, signaling them to go back to their patrols. He and Leon carefully made their way back to the central chamber.

When Leon entered the chamber, the place was barely recognizable. The entire place was charred black and the wooden tables that had once stood as a workspace lay burnt and splintered. It was then that his eyes fell upon Malefore, who was inspecting his ferocious new form. He had grown larger and a line of black stripes ran down his back to a very large tailblade, his spines were jagged and had turned from black to silver, as had his horns. An evil maniacal laugh escaped his maw as he tested his new powers of ice, fire, lightning, and earth.

"Well that was a little more exciting than I thought it would be." Leon said

"So what's our next step." Malefore asked, eager to get free, and wield Leon's power.

"To get you out of there, I need just to find two more ingredients; a sample of your essence and the blood of a purple dragon."

"Well, its obvious where your going to get the blood from, but how are you going to get my 'essence', as you called it?"

"I can extract it off of a dragon that has been in close contact with your very mind."

Malefore's eyes widened in realization "Cynder."

"Exactly. However, I still don't know where to find them."

Malefore thought about Leon's words before he hatched a plan in his mind "His parents."

"The dragonflies in the mushroom forest?"

"Indeed. You take them, and he'll find _you._"

"Brilliant, but we still need the black dragoness."

"Don't worry, where that purple dragon is, that bitch isn't too far behind."

"Don't call her that!" Leon snapped. Once he had realized what he had done he looked at the ground. Behind him Gwar grinned and stifled a snicker as he looked on, "I will take Gwar and a squadron of orcs to the mushroom forest," Gwar's smirk immediately vanished at the thought of the swamp lands, "we'll leave tomorrow." Leon finished before exiting the chamber.

As soon as his footsteps faded away Malefore turned to the orc and said, "Make sure he has the stomach to do what needs to be done"

"Yes, Master." The orc bowed before taking his leave.

As Leon entered his bedchamber, his thoughts drifted to what had just transpired. "What's wrong with me?" he thought to himself as he paced around the room, his breathing becoming more rapid. Why was he still thinking about her, even after all these years? "Shit!" he cursed as he kicked a pot across the room. He leaned his back against the wall and allowed himself to slide to the floor. He took some deep breaths to calm his nerves before whispering to himself "Mom…Dad…Sierra…I won't fail you again."

The warm sunlight struck Cynder's face. Waking her from her sleep. She cracked open one eye and immediately turned her head away from the bright light. She looked to see Spyro, still asleep, next to her. She squirmed out from under his wing, causing Spyro to grumble in his sleep. She slipped out onto the balcony and looked across the vast city. She took a deep breath and took off from the balcony. She enjoyed the cool morning air as it brushed against her scales. It was then that she heard the sounds of fighting coming from the training ground to her right. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she banked toward the training grounds.

Flare and Crystal stood facing each other in the middle of the arena, while the other vanguards stood and watched. Crystal lunged at Flare who sidestepped and swung at her with his tail. The blow connected with her flank, sending her tumbling across the arena. Flare leaped into the air and dived at the ice dragoness. At the last second, Crystal dodged to the left causing Flare to plow into the ground before turning around, and using her ice-breath. Flare's eyes widened in surprise as his feet froze to the ground.

"Neat trick, huh?" Crystal giggled as Flare struggled to free himself.

"Yeah," he responded "but check _this_ out." Flare concentrated on his fire energy. His scales began to glow, and then his body became surrounded in flames. The ice around his feet melted within seconds, and the ice dragoness had to hide behind her wings from the extreme heat. When the flames died away the dragon stood proud before the dragoness. "Hmm, your not a bad fighter." The fire dragon said with a slightly flirty voice.

"Your not so bad yourself, hot stuff." Crystal replied.

"Hey you two" Twitch called, "you're supposed to be fighting, not trying to get a mate."

The two battling dragons felt the blood rush to their faces, while the rest of the vanguards laughed. It was then that they all heard the sound of flapping wings, and saw Cynder land a few yards behind them. They all rushed to meet the black dragoness, "Hello, captain Cynder." They chimed together.

"Uhh, please, just call me Cynder." She said. She didn't like being addressed as a superior.

They nodded their heads. "I have to ask, where did you get that beautiful jewelry?" Charlotte asked, indicating to her silver bracelets around her neck, ankles, and tail.

"Oh, I got these from…" her voice trailed off, no one had ever asked her such a question, and now that they had, she realized that she herself didn't know "Actually, I really don't know. I've had them as long as I remember."

"Well, they still look great on you." Charlotte chirped.

"Hey Cynder," Fang started "you wanna see if you can take me on?"

"Is that a challenge?" she asked with an evil grin.

"You bet it is!"

The two black dragons entered the center of the ring and faced and faced each other. They bowed, as was customary when two dragons dueled, before getting into a defensive position. "Hope your ready." Cynder said.

"I was born ready." Fang replied, causing Cynder to roll her eyes.

Fang lunged, only to be blown into the wall by Cynder's wind breath. As he struggled to get up, Cynder leaped at him. Fang rolled to the side and struck Cynder with the flat of his tailblade. Cynder hissed as she skidded across the dirt. Fang then fired a ball of shadow fire. Cynder sank into shadow and the fireball struck the spot she had been standing in a second earlier. As the dust cleared Fang's eyes grew wide, he thought that he had accidentally incinerated the black dragoness. Then, much to his surprise, Cynder emerged out of the shadows under Fang and uppercut the black dragon. Fang was shot into the air and Cynder seized her opportunity. She flapped her wings once to get close to the black dragon before grabbing his neck and tail and plowing him into the ground. When Fang opened his eyes he found Cynder's tailblade against his throat.

"I guess that makes me the winner." Cynder said before allowing Fang get back to his feet.

"Where…did you…learn…that?" Fang asked trying to catch his breath.

After a few minutes of thinking Cynder just looked at the ground and shook her head.

"Malefore?" Fang asked.

"No, he didn't teach me anything, but I can't recall who my mentor was."

"How much do you remember about your past, Cynder?" Zephyr asked as the other six guardians approached them.

"Well… " Cynder pondered the question for a moment before realizing that there was a huge gap in her memory, "Nothing before Malefore ordered me to capture the guardians."

"How old were you when that happened?" Charlotte asked.

"About Fifteen cycles old."

"So, you can't remember the first fourteen cycles of your life?" Twitch asked slightly surprised by Cynder's predicament.

Cynder just shook her head.

"Hmm, maybe her corruption by the dark master caused amnesia." Crystal said.

"Then maybe she can recover her lost memories over time." Flare said.

"It's been four years." Cynder said sadly.

"Well…it might be for the better." Zephyr said. All the vanguards turned their heads toward her "I mean if those memories are just about your allegiance with the dark master, would you really want them back?"

"I guess not." She sighed.

"Well…I guess if that's what you think," Flare began, "but, good or bad, I'd want to remember everything about my life."

Cynder was about to answer when the sound of wing beats reached her ears. The vanguards looked up to see Hunter riding on Terrador's back with Cyril and Volteer close behind, the vanguards approached the guardians as they landed and bowed. When Hunter slid off of Terrador's back, Cynder ran over and hugged the cheetah around the leg. Hunter bent down and patted the black dragoness on the head. "Its good to see that your safe, Cynder."

"Where's Spyro?" Cyril asked looking around.

"He was still in his bedchamber when I left." Cynder said as she released Hunter's leg. "Why, Is something wrong?"

"Possibly." Hunter began "We've had falcons scour the surrounding areas for some time now. Apparently orc activity has increased within the last week."

"Any idea what their planning?" Twitch asked. Cynder noticed that he was convulsing slightly.

"No clue," Hunter stated before his expression darkened, "but the most recent sighting has been in the enchanted forest, heading toward the mushroom forest."

"Spyro's parents!" Cynder exclaimed.

"Precisely," Volteer said, "which is why we need to find Spyro immediately."

"What about me?" asked a familiar voice.

They turned to see Spyro approaching the group of dragons.

"Master Spyro." The vanguards greeted him.

Uh, please just call me Spyro."

Cynder chuckled at her mate's comment that she herself had made a half-hour ago.

"Spyro, I'm afraid we have a situation." Cyril stated

He then allowed Hunter to tell Spyro of the orc activity, and of the threat to Spyro's parents.

"We have to go!" He exclaimed.

"Right." The rest of the vanguards said.

Cynder and Spyro gave surprised looks at the vanguards.

"Come on," Twitch began, "how can we expect to be a team if we don't help each other out."

The other vanguards nodded in agreement before Terrador said, "It _would_ make a great first mission."

"Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt." Cynder said. She looked at Spyro who nodded his head in agreement.

"Go then, we will tell the rest of the council where you're going." Cyril stated.

The vanguards bowed to the guardians before taking off towards Spyro's old home, flapping their wings as fast as they could.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Leon sat by one of the campfires, staring at the flames as they danced before him. He and the orcs had camped about a half-days walk from the mushroom forest. He had wanted to continue on, but Gwar insisted that they bed down for the night. He looked around at the separate campfires as the orcs around them finished off the last of the day's hunt. He began walking around the encampment attempting to clear his head. He could not shake the thoughts of what he had said to Malefore four days ago. _"Don't call her that!" _his own words still echoed in his mind. "Why is this happening?" he asked himself silently. "I cannot let my petty emotions take control, especially now." He knew he would be face to face with the black dragoness soon, but when the time finally came…would he be able to strike her down?

"You know what I heard?" A voice brought Leon back from his personal thoughts. There were three orc's sitting in front of a campfire so deep in their conversation that they did not notice Leon listening just a few yards away. "I hear that our so-called 'Captain' has an attachment to one of these dragons were after." The center orc said.

The other two orcs gave him a disgusting look, "Interspecies relationships never work out." The one on the right stated.

"Not like that. From what I hear, its more like a father-daughter relationship." the center orc said back.

The orc on the left chuckled, "I'll bet the captain plays the daughter."

The other orcs laughed at the joke, while Leon stood only a foot from the group. He felt his blood begin to boil as the orcs continued laughing. He took a few deep breaths before breaking into the conversation. "So, are you guys enjoying the night air?" The orcs turned around and immediately their smiling faces became looks of fear.

The orc in the center stood up and faced Leon, "Captain, we were just talking about our…new fighting techniques." It was not a good lie, and the orc knew it, but much to his surprise, Leon seemed to buy it.

"Oh okay, carry on then." Leon turned his back to the orc, causing the orc to relax a little, before he spun back around and punched the orc in the jaw. The orc smashed into a tree, which splintered on impact. The other orcs looked between Leon and their comrade, who lay bleeding and clutching his broken jaw. "Right. So does anyone else have any more…interesting stories they wish to share?" The anger in his voice was obvious. The orcs shook their heads, finding themselves unable to speak. "Good. Now help him up," Leon indicated to the orc that he punched, "and put out these fires." The two orcs jumped up, one of them proceeded to help the injured orc, while the other began kicking dirt on the fire.

As Leon watched the fires being put out around the camp, he slowly made his way to the fire he had been sitting at earlier. He gazed into the embers letting himself drift back to his thoughts; "She's a dragon, a vicious, murdering dragon, and she too must die." He thought to himself before kicking dirt over the flames, extinguishing them. He then laid on the cold ground and looked at the stars. The cold air caused him to shiver and he wrapped his arms around himself. "So, what nightmares will plague me tonight?" he wondered to himself before his eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep.

Leon never saw the young dragons that soared over their encampment. The vanguards flapped as hard as they could. They had been flying all day and the signs of fatigue were clear.

"Spyro," Cynder called as she flew closer to him, "I think we should rest for the night."

Spyro looked behind him to see the other vanguards start to fall behind. He let out a sigh. He was worried about his family, but knew that the dragons would be of no use if they were all exhausted. He stopped and hovered in place looking for a clearing. When he had found a spot he turned around and faced the other vanguards before saying, "We'll stay here for the night."

When they landed, they shook the frost off of their wings. "I-its c-c-cold." Twitch said shakily.

"N-no k-kidding." Flare said back.

"Makes you wish you were an ice dragon, doesn't it?" Crystal said haughtily giving a flirty smile to the fire dragon. The ice dragoness was unaffected by the cold weather.

"W-winter s-s-sucks." Zephyr said shivering.

"We s-should build a f-fire." Charlotte suggested.

"N-no." Cynder said. "If the o-orcs are c-close i-it might g-g-give away our p-position."

"S-she's right." Spyro said.

"W-well, how else a-are we s-s-supposed to keep w-warm?" Fang asked.

Spyro hatched an idea in his mind but didn't know what the other guardians would think. He gathered his courage before saying "Well, since C-Crystal seems to be f-fine, that only l-leaves us eight that n-n-need warmth." Spyro then looked from Twitch to Zephyr, as they would be the two who would be most uncomfortable with his plan. "S-so we should p-p-partner up for warmth." Every head turned to Twitch and Zephyr as their faces turned beet red.

"T-that sounds l-like a g-good idea to m-m-me." Zephyr said before she turned to Twitch, "How about you."

"W-well, if it's o-okay with y-you, then its o-okay with m-me." Twitch said back. He was convulsing slightly and the other vanguards took notice.

"Are you okay?" Crystal asked the shivering and convulsing lightning dragon.

"W-why?"

"Because, aside from shivering you also seem to be…"

"T-twitching?" when Crystal nodded, a shaky chuckle came from Twitch's throat. "It happens w-when I'm n-n-nervous. W-why do you t-think they c-c-call me Twitch?"

"Oh, n-now it m-makes sense." Charlotte piped up.

"Y-yeah, but I t-thought I made it obvious."

"W-we can better acquaint o-ourselves later g-guys, for n-now let's t-try to g-get some s-sleep." Spyro stated before lying down with Cynder, and draping a wing over her back, pulling her close. The other vanguards did the same, Flare with Charlotte, Fang with Sting, and finally Zephyr with Twitch, both their faces were still red and Twitch was still convulsing.

"H-having trouble?" Zephyr asked.

"J-just give m-me a m-minute," he then closed his eyes and took some deep breaths, causing his body to relax "B-better?"

"M-much." Soon all nine guardians were asleep.

The next morning, the sun bathed the campground in warm light, rousing the vanguards from their sleep. Flare yawned and stretched, popping his vertebrae "Are we ready?" he asked turning to Spyro as he rose up from beside Cynder.

"Yeah, we should go." he mumbled groggily. The vanguards leapt into the air and continued toward the mushroom forest.

Fang was deep in his own thoughts and didn't notice Charlotte flying beside him until she poked him with her wing barb. He snapped back into reality and looked at the pink dragoness. "Mind if I ask you something?" she asked.

"Sure, what's up?" Fang replied

Charlotte took a quick glance around to make sure no one else was listening. "Is their something wrong with Sting? He hasn't said anything since he introduced himself to Cynder and Spyro."

Fang turned his head to look at his twin, who was deliberately flying behind the group. "My brother has always been shy and nervous, even around me, but when he does talk, he shows wisdom beyond his age, however, there _is_ something you probably should know about him;" He turned to look Charlotte "He was…_drafted_, for lack of a better word, into the vanguards." Charlotte was slightly taken aback as Fang continued, "Our father, Anima, forced him to join. He said that both his offspring must protect dragon kind in order to bring honor to the family."

"That's horrible!" Charlotte gasped.

"Kinda…but in the long run, all my father wants is for all of us to be happy."

Charlotte thought for a moment before saying "Well, I suppose I shouldn't judge how your family does things."

"Thank you"

"For what?"

"For understanding." Fang shot the fire dragoness a wink, causing her to blush slightly.

"Well…that doesn't mean I'm not going to try and get him to talk to us."

"Be my guest, but don't expect it to be an easy task."

Without another word Charlotte slowed her pace until she was flying next to Sting "Hey!" She called catching the attention of the black dragon.

"Uh, h-hi." Sting said back nervously.

"So…nice weather for flying, huh?" She nearly slapped herself for saying something so stupid.

"Well…a-actually the lack of warm t-thermals make it h-hard to fly i-in the w-wintertime." Sting stuttered in reply.

"Wow, Fang wasn't kidding." Charlotte muttered to herself. "So, how do you like the vanguards?"

"I don't, F-Fang told y-you why I'm h-here, didn't he?"

"Oh, you heard that?"

"Yeah." He said plainly before looking the dragoness straight in the eye. "S-so when are y-you planning t-to tell my b-brother that you l-like him?"

"What!" Charlotte nearly squeaked. Her face immediately turned beet red.

"D-don't worry, I w-wont tell him."

"I-I think you're mistaken."

"I don't t-think I am. I-I saw how y-you looked at h-him. It's the s-same look that Spyro g-gives Cynder, t-that your brother gives C-Crystal, and t-that Zephyr gave T-Twitch last night."

"I can assure you that I only see your brother as a friend."

Sting looked hard at the fire dragoness before saying "If y-you say s-so."

Charlotte rolled her eyes, "You know, I think I like you better when you don't talk."

Sting laughed at that, a sound that Charlotte had never heard from the black dragon. She smiled, content with her victory.

It wasn't long before massive mushrooms replaced the green forest below them. They banked downward toward a large clearing near the dragonfly village. As they landed, they immediately felt the temperature increase from the humidity of the swamp. They made their way through the small amounts of underbrush till they reached a smaller clearing that was filled with mushroom houses. Spyro let out a sigh of relief once he saw that the village was still intact. Dragonflies who were busying themselves with their daily routine stopped when they saw Spyro and the others emerge from the forest. The dragonflies erupted in a cheer that caught the dragons off guard. It was then that Spyro saw Sparx and his parents emerge from the crowd.

"Spyro!" Sparx exclaimed before he flew over and latched himself to his brother's muzzle in a big hug.

"Sparx, I'm glad your okay." Spyro said.

Sparx released his grip, "Ah well, you know dark master, armies of evil, end of the world, no big deal really."

Spyro chuckled at that before turning to his parents "Mom, dad, how have you been?"

"Worried to death about you." His mother said as she kissed him on the cheek.

"Who are your friends?" His father asked.

"Oh, this is Twitch, Zephyr, Crystal, Flare, Charlotte, Fang, Sting, and _this" _he draped a wing over Cynder's back, causing her to blush, "is my mate Cynder."

His mother faced the black dragoness and said, "'Cynder', what a beautiful name."

"Thank you." She replied. It was then that a question had popped into her head; who had named her?

Meanwhile not too far away, "Damn this blasted swamp!" Gwar yelled into the air as the orc battalion marched through the mushroom forest.

"Compared to the hellhole you orcs call home, I'd say that this is a paradise." Leon said smugly.

"Don't be upset that you can't deal with the heat."

"Explain to me, again, why you hate the swamp."

Gwar was about to answer, but the odd looking mushrooms ahead of them caught his eye. Leon raised a hand, halting the orcs. He and Gwar studied the multicolored gem covered fungi before Gwar asked, "Do you think those gems might be worth something?"

"I'm alchemist and an assassin, mercantile is not anywhere in my job description." Leon said plainly "Besides, who would buy anything from us?"

"I know a few pirates."

Leon sighed, "If it truly means that much to you, then I suppose we can take them with us."

Gwar gave a grunt to the nearest orc. The orc approached one of the mushrooms and reached for one of the crystals. As soon as his fingers closed around the crystal the mushroom fidgeted under the orc's grip. Eight long legs emerged from under the mushroom and the mushroom's stalk was yanked out of the ground revealing a head with several ruby colored eyes and long fangs. The arachnid thrust its sharp leg to the right, catching the orc that had been trying to take its crystals in the gut and impaling him. The orc let out a gargled scream before the arachnid gave a quick swipe, tearing the orc in half. The other orcs looked in horror as the rest of the mushrooms began turning into arachnids as well.

Gwar drew his sword and Leon his shield and javelin. Gwar turned to Leon and said, "_This _is why I hate the swamp."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The closest arachnid leaped for Gwar, who dodged right, and then stabbed with his sword. The attack hit its mark, and the sword plunged into the abdomen of the attacking arachnid. Green blood spilled from the wound and the arachnid fell dead next to the orc. "Thanks for the help." He said sarcastically shooting a glare at Leon.

"You killed it, didn't you?" Leon shot back, keeping his eyes trained on the approaching arachnids.

The orcs stepped in front of their commanding officers, ready to defend them. The arachnids attacked, taking down the first few orcs in a matter of minutes before being struck down with spears and swords. A few arachnids broke through the line of orcs, and went straight for Gwar and Leon. One of them leaped at Leon who ducked and thrust his javelin upward, catching the arachnid under the jaw. Its blood dripped onto Leon's hood before he threw its dead body to the side.

Another arachnid attempted to tackle Gwar, who leaped to the side. The arachnid swung its leg, but Gwar raised his sword, cutting off the sharp tip of the leg and spraying more blood across the ground. The arachnid shrieked and attacked with its other leg, the hit connected and flung Gwar into a large mushroom. The arachnid leaped on top of Gwar and attempted to sink its long venomous fangs into the orc's neck. Gwar held the arachnid back while with one hand, while feeling around for his sword with the other. Just when his strength was about to fail, he felt his hand brush against the hilt of his weapon. He grabbed his blade and thrust it through the arachnid's head. The arachnid shrieked again before falling to the side dead.

Two more arachnids ran at Leon, who raised his hand and shot dark lightning from his fingertips. Both arachnids were caught in the blast, and convulsed wildly as ten thousand volts fried them from the inside out, before they dropped to the ground dead.

Gwar attempted to wrench his sword from the dead arachnid. He had almost freed the blade when another arachnid tackled him from behind and threw him into the murky swamp water. He emerged coughing and spluttering only to have the arachnid come down on top of him and pinned him under the water. Water filled his lungs and his world began to blur before he felt the arachnid being yanked off of him. A hand grabbed one of his horns and pulled him to the surface. He coughed hard, expelling the water from his lungs. He then looked upon the battlefield, which was covered in red and green blood, before looking up at his savior, Leon. "Took you long enough." He growled.

"At least I helped this time." Leon said back as the orc got to his feet. He then turned to the rest of the orcs "How many did we lose?"

"Ten, sir." An orc in the back replied.

"That makes thirty left." He said to Gwar. "It could have been much worse."

"I say that we leave…now." Gwar said as he finally yanked his sword free from the dead arachnid.

"You're kidding. The dragonfly village is just on the other side of this brush, and you want to turn tail and run?"

"If that's what you want to call it, then yes. In case you haven't noticed, this entire place is trying to kill us!"

"You know what? I am sick of your constant bitching. Killing things is what you live for, isn't it?"

"We live to kill dragons, not to follow an incompetent leader and be eaten by giant bugs!" The other orcs murmured in agreement.

Leon sighed deeply "Fine, we'll go back," a sigh of relief came from the crowd of orcs "But, before we do, I must know; who here will tell Malefore that he's going to be stuck in his prison for all eternity, because it most certainly won't be me." The orcs shifted uncomfortably at the thought. "Will it be you? You maybe? What about you?" he pointed at each orc and they shrank back from the punishing finger. "Actually, Gwar" he turned to the orc general "since it was _your_ idea, then I believe you should have the honor of breaking the news to him." Gwar stared daggers at Leon. "So what will it be?"

Gwar was defeated, and he knew it "We keep moving." He grunted, keeping his killing stare on Leon.

"I'm glad you see things my way." Leon said smugly. "Now, come on. We should get there by sun down."

"Orcs?" Spyro's mother asked bewildered.

"What would they want out here?" Spyro's father asked.

"We're not sure…but we to get everyone out of here, now." Spyro replied.

"Wait, how close are they?" Sparx asked

"We don't know, they might be three days away or they could be here in a second, either way, we have to get you to safety." Cynder spoke up.

"Okay," Spyro's father said sadly. "I'll make the announcement." He turned to the other dragonflies and raised his voice so they all could hear, "My fellow dragonflies, it seems our home has been set upon by orcs." The crowd murmured in worry. "We don't know what they want, but we know that they are coming this way. I know that you don't want to leave your homes again, after having just gotten back, but-"

A scream from the crowd cut off Spyro's father. The vanguards eyes scanned the area. Orcs appeared from out of the mushroom forest and surrounded the small village.

"Mom, dad, we'll make an opening! Get everyone out of here!" Spyro yelled. The orcs drew their swords and waited for their command.

Gwar looked at the young dragons, "Leon never said anything about fighting dragons." He said to himself, "Oh well, it's a nice bonus." He then turned to his troops, "We need that blue one and that red one," He said pointing to Spyro's parents, "no one else matters."

The orcs drew their swords and approached the dragons, the bloodlust clear in their eyes.

"Back off!" Flare yelled. He used his fire breath and the orcs screams echoed in the night sky as their flesh burned away.

Zephyr fired an earth bullet that struck the ground before exploding, sending several orcs rag dolling through the air. An orc swung at Crystal, who ducked and countered with her ice breath, freezing the orcs before Twitch used his tail mace to shatter them into pieces. Charlotte set two more orcs on fire, but a third attacked from behind and thrust its spear into Charlotte's hind leg. Charlotte screamed in pain as the orc raised its spear to finish her off.

"Get away from her." Fang yelled. He thrust his tailblade through the orc's back before flinging his dead body to the side. "Are you okay?"

"It's just a scratch." she replied.

Sting used his venom breath, causing three orcs' flesh to melt, exposing muscle and bone.

Cynder took a deep breath before blowing gap in the line of orcs..

"Now's our chance!" Sparx yelled to the rest of the dragonflies. They took off towards the opening and shot through the gap, "Keep going!" Sparx screamed. He neglected to notice the orc general emerging from the woods with a glass jar in his hand.

Gwar swung the jar catching Spyro's parents and swatting Sparx to the ground. He put the lid on the jar, sealing the couple inside, while the rest of the dragonflies scattered in fear. Gwar gave a loud bellow signaling for a retreat.

As the orcs disappeared into the woods the vanguards stood dumbstruck. "Why are they leaving when they had a clear advantage?" Crystal asked skeptically.

"It's either because we scared them off, or, more likely, they got what they wanted." Flare said. He then noticed the blood around his sister's hind leg, "Charlotte, your leg!"

"Its fine." She said.

"Here let me see." Zephyr said. She studied the wound before placing her paw over the bleeding hole. She began glowing green with energy as she concentrated on the wound. When she removed her paw, the dragons saw that the wound had closed up. Zephyr looked up to see the other vanguards looking skeptically at her. "I get it from my mom." She explained.

Sparx's head spun as he watched the orc general carry his family away. When he felt like he could fly, he lifted himself off of the ground, and immediately flew back towards the village. The vanguards were still pondering the orcs' quick retreat when Sparx popped into view. "Spyro! Spyro! Spyro!" He called.

The dragonfly stopped in front of the group of dragons and tried to catch his breath. "Sparx, where's mom and dad?" Spyro asked.

"The…orcs…took them." Sparx gasped.

"What?" Spyro exclaimed before turning to the other dragons, "I've got to go get them!"

"We'll be right behind you." Fang assured him.

Spyro nodded before him and the vanguards gave chase to the orcs.

Leon sat on a mushroom cap and gazed into the night sky. The rustling of bushes in front of him broke his concentration. Gwar emerged from the brambles, his troops followed behind, some of them, Leon noticed, had bleeding wounds and broken bones.

"What the hell happened?" he asked as he rose off the cap.

"There were dragons." Gwar replied.

"Dragons? What did they look like?"

"It was too dark, we couldn't see."

"Did you kill any of them?" Leon asked. The orcs shook their heads. "What about the dragonflies?"

Gwar approached Leon and handed him the jar with the two dragonflies huddling close to each other. Leon took the jar and examined the two dragonflies inside. "Hmm, I wonder" Leon thought to himself.

"So what now?"

"Get behind me, and wait." Leon said plainly. The orcs took a glance at each other before lining falling in line behind Leon. "Ready your weapons." The orcs drew their shields, spears, and swords and readied themselves behind Leon.

Gwar approached Leon and asked; "What's happening?"

"You'll see." No sooner had he spoken had the vanguards entered the clearing. Leon drew his javelin and charged it dark energy. The crystal began to glow brightly, casting an eerie purple light that illuminated the area. He stabbed it into the ground so it would not move before he studied the dragons before him. His eyes immediately fell on Spyro. "You've been quite illusive up until now, young dragon."

Spyro glared daggers at the Leon before Sparx said "Last person who said that, got his ass handed to him."

An evil laugh escaped from Leon, and it made the vanguards' blood freeze in their veins. "I assure you," Leon started "I am not so easily beaten like Gaul was."

"Wait," Gwar interjected "so this puny dragon defeated the dark master?" The orc began laughing hard. Leon kicked his foot behind him, catching the orc in the gut, and causing him to drop to his knees.

"I apologize for him. He has not yet learned respect for others."

Spyro looked at his parents, who were still trapped in the jar. "Let them go." He said.

"Hmm? Oh yes of course." Leon said, before twisting the lid of the jar off and set the two dragonflies free. "Now that you're here, I won't be needing them."

The dragonflies flew to their sons. "You guys okay?" Sparx asked.

"We're fine." His mother assured him.

"Sparx, I want you to take them, find the other dragonflies, and get to Warfang." Spyro ordered

"Bro, I'm not leaving you again." Sparx said, giving his brother a worried look.

"Look, they need you more than I do right now," he then looked his brother straight in the eye "please."

Sparx shrugged his shoulders in defeat "Okay, but this is the last time I'm leaving you, got it!"

"Deal," Spyro said, "now go." Sparx gave him one last worried look before flying into the woods with his parents. Spyro watched them disappear before turning his killing gaze back to Leon.

It was then that Leon noticed the black dragoness next to Spyro. "Cynder, It's been awhile."

The vanguards looked at Cynder, who was very taken aback by Leon's words. "Who are you?"

"Aww, you don't remember me, of course that might be because Malefore had me wipe your mind before he corrupted you."

"You were a servant of the dark master?"

"I serve no one, I'm his partner, and I wouldn't use the past tense yet."

Spyro and Cynder both wore looks of shock, "That's what this is about," Spyro began you're trying to bring him back."

"What did he promise you? Power? Gems?" Cynder asked as her temper rose.

"Oh please." Leon scoffed "My goals are not so single minded."

"Then what?" Cynder's voice was becoming more furious by the second.

"The destruction of your race." Leon said plainly

"Why?"

"Justice."

"Justice?" Cynder's had reached her breaking point "Where do you get off calling anything the dark master does 'justice'?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"What's to understand?" Fang spoke up, his temper beginning to rise as well. "Many dragons have died because of the dark master."

"A fact I'm quite proud of." Leon said coldly.

"You still didn't answer my question!" Cynder yelled, "Who are you?"

"Oh where are my manners?" Leon said. He then threw back his hood revealing a white face with jet-black hair and a pair of cold, convicting eyes with purple irises "My name is Leon, Leon Lovidico," He bowed deeply "last human prince of Avalar."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Cynder couldn't help but feel a strange familiarity towards Leon.

"What's a human?" Crystal asked.

"No idea." Flame replied.

"It no longer matters." Leon said. Sting thought he heard a slight sadness in his voice, but said nothing. The orcs behind Leon were gripping their weapons tightly, their anticipation growing.

"If I'm the one you want, then your fight is with me." Spyro said.

"Spyro…" Zephyr began, but Spyro cut her off.

"We were lucky last time. You guys aren't trained yet and one of you even got hurt," He shot a glance at Charlotte, before turning back to Leon, "no one is going to die for me."

Cynder was about to argue, but Leon spoke first. "I'm impressed, I didn't expect such valor from a dragon, but," he pointed at Cynder, "I'm afraid I need her too."

"No way."

"Spyro, I can take care of myself." Cynder argued.

"But…" Spyro began, but Cynder cut him off.

"We're mates, which means that whatever we do, we do together." She shot him a flirty wink, causing a smile to spread across Spyro's muzzle.

"This is ridiculous!" Fang exclaimed. "The two of you can't beat all these orcs by yourselves."

"They won't have to." Leon said. "I'll be facing them alone."

"But, captain," Gwar began.

"Don't worry, its just two dragons."

"I'm only worried that your death will seal the dark master's fate." Gwar thought to himself.

"Now hold this," Leon removed his shield and handed it to Gwar, "It only slows me down." He was left with throwing knives around his belt and a small dagger with a golden hilt that his father had given him. He drew his dagger and stepped away from the orcs. Spyro turned to Cynder, "Are you ready?"

"Let's do it." She said confidently.

Her and Spyro separated and surrounded their foe. Leon waited patiently, glancing between the two dragons. Spyro was the first one to make a move. He leaped at Leon, who leaned back as Spyro's talons flew by, inches from his chest before he grabbed Spyro's tail. Spyro yelped as he was thrown back to the ground. Cynder lunged and struck with her tailblade. Leon tried to dodge again but the attack had caught him off guard and the blade cut through his armor and left a long laceration on his chest. Leon refused to let the pain show as blood ran down his sternum. He smiled and looked at Cynder "You've gotten faster."

"Shut up and fight!" she said before striking again with her tailblade. Leon raised his dagger and the two blades connected in a flash of sparks. The two combatants continued striking at each other in this fashion, moving faster and faster until Leon swung hard Cynder dodged and exhaled, blowing Leon into a mushroom stalk. Leon stood back up and, much to Cynder's surprise, countered with his own wind attack from his palm, which sent Cynder flying and then slamming into the ground. She shook the stars from her head before staring at Leon, "You can use magic?"

"Of course," Leon replied "who do you think trained you to use yours?"

"I don't believe you."

"What you believe and what's reality are two different things."

"Enough!" Spyro yelled as he tackled Leon. Leon and Spyro rolled across the ground until Leon was able to get his feet under the purple dragon and kicked hard. Spyro's back slammed against a mushroom and he could feel one of his wings break. He got back to his feet, but Leon was already standing. He grabbed one of his throwing knives and hurled it at the dragon.

"Spyro, look out!" Cynder screamed. Spyro was able to get out of the way enough for the dagger to miss his heart, but it struck his shoulder and pinned him to the mushroom. Spyro screamed in pain as the blood gushed from the wound.

"That's what I need." Leon said as he approached the wounded dragon.

"Don't even think about it!" Cynder yelled as she emerged from the shadows below Leon and uppercut him, sending him straight up into the air. Cynder flapped once to get close to Leon and attempted to use the same move she used to beat Fang. Leon realized what she was doing and use his wind power to roll over Cynder, and used the move that Cynder was attempting to execute. He grabbed her neck and tail and plowed her into the ground. Cynder felt the wind rush out of her and both of her wings break. The world spun and faded in and out around Cynder. She could hear Spyro in the distance scream her name and she saw Leon standing over her.

"I would have been defeated by that move…if I hadn't taught it to you." He said before turning his attention to Spyro. He approached the dragon and knelt down in front of him. Thinking that Leon didn't know about his breath attacks, Spyro opened his mouth but Leon quickly grabbed his jaws and held them together. He smiled and began wiggling the knife that was still in Spyro's shoulder. Spyro's muffled scream made the other vanguards cringe.

"We have to do something!" Charlotte exclaimed.

"N-no." Sting said, surprising everyone "Spyro and C-Cynder w-wanted to t-take h-him on by t-themselves. We m-must accept t-that."

Charlotte wanted to argue but Fang looked at her and shook his head. She turned her attention back to the fight.

"Now then." Leon said as he reached into has armored shirt and pulled out a necklace with two small hollow clear crystals on either side of a slightly larger hollow clear crystal. He held one of the smaller crystals against the wound and allowed it to fill with blood before stashing it back under his shirt, "I'll make this quick." He said before taking his dagger and holding it to Spyro's throat.

Cynder opened her eyes and gave a loud shriek causing everyone to cover their ears, Spyro saw his opportunity. He slashed with his claws and the left three long bloody gashes on Leon's right cheek. Leon staggered back and was immediately tackled by Cynder. They rolled across the ground, Cynder's broken wings felt like they were on fire, but she ignored it before. She raised her tailblade and plunged it into Leon's shoulder. Leon cringed as Cynder yanked her tailblade back out and leaped away, leaving Leon to continue skidding across the ground. Cynder landed on her feet and stared as Leon struggled to his feet and clutched his bleeding shoulder.

"How…do you…like it?" She panted

Another maniacal laugh escaped from Leon as he gazed at Cynder, "I've indeed taught you well."

Cynder felt anger overflow and her eyes turned into feral slits. She charged at, full speed, Leon . Spyro looked at Leon, who was smiling as the dragoness was coming to take his life, his eyes widened in horror as Leon's eyes flashed with convexity.

"Cynder, don't." He screamed, but Cynder had already leaped. Leon raised his good arm, and Cynder's yelped as she was stopped in mid-air, surrounded by a barrier of convexity.

"I guess I didn't teach you well enough." Leon said as he looked at her. He staggered back to the group of orcs, the barrier following close behind. "We have what we need, let's go."

"No!" Spyro screamed as he yanked his shoulder free and stood to face the orcs.

"You're not taking her!" Crystal exclaimed as she and the other vanguards took fighting positions beside Spyro.

"You can't beat all of us." Twitch said as his body convulsed wildly.

"I don't think I have to." Leon said before grabbing his javelin and thrusting it through the barrier and stopping it an inch from Cynder's jugular. Cynder tried to shy away from the sharp edge but she was frozen in place. "Follow me, and she dies."

Spyro continued glaring daggers at Leon who stared at him with a cold intent. "I won't lose her again!" he screamed as tears began to fall from his eyes.

"Spyro, it's okay," Cynder said. Spyro looked at his mate, who smiled reassuringly. "I'll be fine."

Spyro glanced from his mate to Leon, before dropping his gaze to the ground. "I think we have an understanding." Leon said as he put away his javelin.

"If you hurt her," Spyro lifted his gaze to look directly into Leon's eyes. "I _will_ kill you."

Leon gave a slight chuckle "I'll keep that in mind." Shadows then appeared around his feet and grew, encompassing the orcs around him. As they sank into shadow Spyro and Cynder kept their eyes locked on one another.

"I promise I'll find you." He told her.

"I know…I love you." She said before the shadows swallowed her, the orcs, and Leon.

"I love you too." He said even though he knew that his words could not reach her now.

"Spyro, I'm sorry." Crystal said.

"Don't worry bud, we'll get her back." Fang assured him.

"Thanks guys, I-" the blood loss had finally gotten to Spyro and he collapsed onto his side and blacked out.

"Spyro!" Flare yelled as the vanguards surrounded their fallen captain.

"Zephyr," Twitch looked at the earth dragoness, "can you heal him?"

"I'm on it." Zephyr replied as she placed her paw over Spyro's wounds.

Spyro found himself back in the Chronicler's library. "Ignitus?" he called.

"How are you young dragon?" Ignitus asked.

Spyro spun around to face his mentor. "Not good." He said sadly.

"How so?"

"Cynder's been kidnapped by a 'human', who's planning to release the dark master, again."

"Oh dear. That isn't good at all." Ignitus began "you said that she was taken by a 'human'?"

"Do you know something about them?" Spyro asked hopefully.

Ignitus closed his eyes and his scales began to glow blue. He opened his eyes and looked sadly at the Spyro "I'm afraid not young dragon. There's no record of them in this library."

"How is that possible?"

"I'm not sure, but this may explain the black pages."

"What do you mean?"

"This 'human' obviously plays a key role in Malefore's return," Ignitus explained, "but if his race isn't recorded in dragon history, then neither is anything he may accomplish."

"I need to find her!" Spyro exclaimed. "If she were to die…" tears began falling from his eyes, "I don't know what I'd do."

"Don't worry young dragon," Ignitus gave him a reassuring pat on the head "with determination like that, you'll find her in no time."

"But I'm not sure where their at."

"Spyro…I have a gift for you." Ignitus began to glow brightly. He placed his paw on Spyro's head and Spyro could feel the transfer of energy. When it was over, Spyro felt rejuvenated.

"What was that?" he asked.

"The power of the seer," Ignitus explained, "go to Warfang and use the pool of visions. It should point you in the right direction." The room began to fade away. "I wish you the best of luck on your quest, young dragon." Ignitus said before the room completely faded.

Spyro cracked open an eye to see that he was still in the mushroom. He lifted his head to see that his wing and stab wound was completely healed.

"Oh good, you're awake." Crystal said as she and the other vanguards lifted their heads from their resting positions.

"Yeah," he said groggily "what happened?"

"You got banged up pretty bad." Twitch said. "You almost bled out, but" he looked at Zephyr, causing her to blush "Zephyr was able to save you."

Spyro looked at Zephyr "Thank you."

"It was nothing." She said.

"So what's our next move?" Flare asked "Are we going after them."

"We don't know where to start looking." Fang interjected.

"I do." Spyro said

"You know where their at?" Charlotte asked skeptically.

"No," he replied "but I know where to find out."

"Where?" Crystal asked.

"The pool of visions at Warfang."

"Are you sure?" Flare asked

"Positive."

"Then that's where we'll go" Charlotte said, "but for tonight, you need to rest."

Spyro wanted to argue, but he knew that he didn't have the energy to fly. "Okay, but we set out first thing in the morning." The vanguards nodded before settling back down and closing their eyes. Spyro did the same, knowing that Cynder would surely be in his dreams tonight.


	9. Chapter 9

**Warning: this chapter contains a Spyro physics lesson, thank you. **

Chapter 9

All Cynder could feel was pain as the two orcs who toyed with her continued to kick and beat her. They had been walking for a few hours until they made it out of the mushroom forest, and into the forest of Avalar, where they had decided to camp for the night. Cynder's screams were muffled by the rope that tied her maw shut, and the rope that tied her broken wings down aggravated her broken bones and cut into her flesh as her wings swelled. Her legs were also bound and her tailblade was tied to her stomach.

One of the orcs gave her a sharp kick to the stomach, causing another muffled scream to escape from her maw. Cynder closed her eyes as the next orc was about to kick her in the head when a strong gust of wind blew the two orcs into the trees.

Leon stared hard at the two orcs as they rose to their feet, bruised and bloodied from the attack. He had a healing herb on his face where Spyro's claws had struck him, and cloth bandages were wrapped around him from his right hip to his left shoulder.

"Touch her again, and I'll cut off your fingers, one by one." he said menacingly.

The orcs glared at him before limping towards another group of orcs, Leon sat beside the black dragoness and began rummaging through his satchel. Cynder watched as he pulled out wood and began building a fire. Once the last stick was placed he stood back up and left for a short while before coming back with a lit torch. He set the wood on fire before extinguishing the torch and sitting back down.

He looked at Cynder and noticed her bloody ropes and swollen wings. He yanked out his dagger and slid next to the black dragoness. Cynder closed her eyes and waited for what she thought would be her death, but instead, much to her surprise, she felt relief. Leon cut away the ropes around her wings and threw the bloody ropes to the side.

"Stupid orcs," he said looking at Cynder "you're obviously not going to be flying in this condition." He then examined her injuries before grabbing his satchel and searching through it again. He pulled out several healing herbs, a jar of wax, and some rolls of cloth bandages. He applied the healing herb to the rope cuts. The cold sap soothed the burning wounds making Cynder feel more relaxed. Leon then stroked one of Cynder's wings, causing a wave of pain to snap her out of her relaxed state.

"The bones need to be set in place." Leon told her "this _will_ hurt." he set his knee gently into her back, making sure he avoided the spines, before gently grasping a wing in each hand. He felt Cynder tense up underneath him "Don't worry," he said, "this isn't the first time I've set your broken bones."

Cynder didn't have time to think about the comment as Leon gave a hard jerk, realigning the bones with a loud crack. Cynder's muffled scream lasted about a minute as tears ran down her cheeks.

Leon sat the jar near the fire and waited for it the wax inside to melt. He turned to Cynder, who stared at him with a look of bewilderment. Leon sighed as he thought about a decision that he knew would be stupid on his part. He looked Cynder straight in the eye before he had finally made his decision. "I'm going to unbind your mouth now," he began "I would appreciate it if you did not do anything stupid."

Cynder was taken aback by the offer as Leon cut through the ropes tied around her maw. Leon threw the ropes to the side before staring into the fire again. For a while neither of them said anything. As soon as Leon picked up the melted wax, Cynder spoke, "I don't understand you."

"What do you mean?" he asked as he began to spread the wax onto the cloth bandages.

"You say you want the exterminate dragons, and yet, you're taking the time to heal the wounds of one. It's like you're two different people."

"It may seem hypocritical, but I assure you that my mind is focused on the destruction of your race." He said as he gently wrapped Cynder's wings in the wax-covered cloth.

"Then why would you help me."

"There are some things you don't understand." He said, "Now, hold still." He blew gently, using his wind power to harden the wax and cloth into a cast. "There, all done."

Cynder was about to speak again when Gwar approached them with a two bowls, one with fresh cooked meat and one with water. His eyes fell upon Cynder and he looked questionably at Leon. "She was uncomfortable." He explained.

"You must be joking." Gwar scoffed. "She's a prisoner."

"We don't want her to die before we get what we need."

"Nice excuse." Gwar said mockingly, "If all those humans were as weak-hearted as you then it's no wonder the dragons-" Gwar stopped mid-sentence, he had not realized he was talking out loud until it was too late.

Leon's eyes glowed with convexity and the wind itself seemed to freeze in fear. Dark lightning began emanating from his body, and Gwar's eyes grew wide in horror. Leon turned his hate filled eyes towards the orc, his voice was terrifyingly warped. "You do not want to finish that sentence." He said.

"I-I'm s-s-sorry." Gwar stammered.

Leon continued to stare daggers at the orc, but allowed his anger to subside and his body and voice returned their normal state. "I don't have the energy to deal with you." He sighed.

"H-here's the f-food we caught." He said, still terrified of what had just occurred.

He set the food and water down before straightening up, and regaining his composure.

"What about her?" Leon asked indicating towards Cynder.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't think that dragons get hungry too?"

"Food is for warriors," He began "not prisoners, dragons, or," he shot a glare at Cynder, who glared back "traitors."

"I see." Leon said, "Dismissed." He waved his hand and Gwar left, occasionally taking a wary glance over his shoulder at Cynder and Leon. Leon took a deep breath to relax himself, before reaching for the bowls that Gwar left behind. He took a drink of the water before setting both bowls in front of Cynder, who looked up at him inquisitively. "I'm not hungry." He stated. Cynder continued to stare at him for a moment before turning her snout to the cooked meat and gorging herself. It didn't take long for her to finish the meat and water.

After several more minutes Cynder spoke again, "How long have you been hunting dragons?" She asked.

"I stopped counting after two-thousand years."

Cynder was shocked by what she had heard. "Do all humans live that long?" she asked genuinely curious.

"My body is frozen in time" Leon explained, "The body you see before you is about nineteen cycles old. The oldest we would normally get was about seventy cycles old."

"How did you manage that?"

Leon unclipped his javelin from his belt and extended it, causing Cynder to tense up in expectation of an attack. "What do you know about dark crystals?"

"Nothing other than the fact that they're poisonous to dragons and they were created by the dark master."

"Well your partially right." Leon explained "The purple dragons are immune to the toxin, but, more importantly, Malefore didn't create them, I gave them to him, a gift from the real creators of the dark crystals, my people."

"Why?"

"He wanted power, and I wanted the dragons gone, it seemed like a good compromise."

"Do you realize how many dragons have been killed because of you." Cynder said as her anger began to rise again.

"Not enough." Leon said remorselessly.

"What could we have done to cause you to hate us so?"

"It doesn't matter anymore."

Cynder stayed silent for a long time before changing the subject, "How did you make the dark crystals?"

"Are you actually curious or are you just making small talk?"

"Little of both."

Leon sighed deeply, "You know about convexity, correct."

"You mean the realm that imprisoned Malefore?"

"Well, there's more to it than that. You see, convexity is the negative energy that lies in a universe that parallels this one. It is the polar opposite of the four elements that the normal dragons use."

"Wait," Cynder interrupted "What do you mean 'normal' dragons?"

"Any dragon that's not black. Black dragons, while not as rare as purple dragons, are still an anomaly. Your powers are special and aren't considered normal. Your mate is actually considered more normal than you are, because his powers are still that of nature. However, special dragons like you and him can also tap into the power of convexity, which is how you two beat Malefore."

"That makes sense." Cynder began, "but what does that have to do with dark crystals?"

"Dark crystals are convexity in a crystalline form. My…experimenting with them allowed me to extend my life indefinitely and gave me these powers including the power to invade minds."

"So, is that how you… _stole_ my memories?"

"It is."

"You had no right."

"You don't want them, they would only complicate your life."

"That's not your decision to make, besides, I think you and the orcs have already done that." Cynder scolded.

"Good point." Leon said. "Do you want them back?"

Cynder was surprised by the question "C-can you do that?"

"Of course." He replied. Cynder pondered over the decision before Leon's threw dirt over the fire and extinguished it, "Think about it, we still have a few days before we get back to the cave, but for now, we rest." He lay down slowly so he didn't aggravate his wounds.

Cynder kept looking at him through the dark for a minute before saying "Thank you."

"Please, don't mention it."

"It was kind of-"

"I'm serious, you're still a dragon, and in the end, one of us must die."

Cynder was speechless, she faced away from Leon, disgusted, not by what he had said, but by the way he said it, cold and heartless. She laid her head down on the hard ground and attempted to get some sleep.

The forest rushed below the vanguards as they hurried back to Warfang, Spyro had barely gotten any sleep, all he dreamt about was his mate being ripped apart in front of his eyes. Several times he had woken up screaming, causing the other guardians to jolt up and unleashed their breath attacks on a non-existent enemy.

"I _will_ find her." Spyro thought to himself.

Flare glided next to Crystal, who was caught up in her own thoughts before, Flare nudged her with his wing barb. "Something on your mind?" he asked.

"I'm just worried." She replied.

"About Cynder?"

"About her, the dark master, and that…whatever that was."

"The human, I can't remember what he called himself."

"It was Leon." Zephyr broke in. "He said he was the last of his kind."

"What do you think happened to the rest of the humans?" Charlotte asked.

"Does it matter?" Twitch interjected "He wants every dragon dead, and he's allied himself with the dark master to do it."

Twitch's words caused the other vanguards to fall silent. Charlotte glided up next to Fang. "What do you think of this Leon guy?" She asked.

"I think he's the cause of hundreds of innocent lives being lost." Fang said plainly "If we don't stop him..." he paused and closed his eyes for a second "We_ must_ stop him."

"By the way he fights, it doesn't look like it's gonna be easy."

"It doesn't matter. I'll do anything to protect my parents, my brother…and you." He shot Charlotte a glance, who blushed noticeably at the dragon's word.

"Why me?"

"I dunno, maybe I like you." He gave her a flirty smile, which caused her to blush even more.

She looked back at Sting who was flying behind the group "I'm gonna check on your brother." Fang nodded before Charlotte slowed her pace until she was next to Sting. "So, what do _you_ think of Leon?"

Sting looked at her for a moment before answering "I-I think t-that there's m-more to him t-that we think."

"What do you mean?"

"I-I mean that t-there's something a-about him t-that I c-can't seem to p-put my t-talon on."

"Sound's like it makes you frustrated."

"It d-doesn't, it makes m-me scared."

"Why?" Charlotte asked worriedly.

"Because I-I'm afraid that w-what I don't know is t-the k-key to s-stopping this g-genocide."

"Don't worry, we have the cheetah's, the moles, and thousands of dragons on our side, there's no way that he can kill us all."

"I-I wasn't t-talking about him k-killing us, I w-was talking about h-him killing himself."

"Your worried about him?" Charlotte asked shocked "How can you say that! He's trying to release the dark master, who knows how many dragons he's killed, and you saw what he did to Spyro and Cynder!"

"J-just trust m-me." Sting said. "I t-think that w-whatever has occurred to m-make Leon the w-way he is r-runs deeper t-than any of us c-could imagine."

"We're here." Spyro called behind him as the forest below opened into a large open field with Warfang at the center. They landed in the courtyard and were greeted by council members, Sparx, and Spyro's parents. The vanguards bowed before Spyro ran to his family and gave them a gentle hug. "Thank the ancestors your alright." he said.

"Where's Cynder?" Sparx asked looking around.

"She was taken." Spyro said sadly.

"By this creature that your parents have been talking about?" Cyril asked.

"Yes."

"Then you must tell us about this new foe." Nitro stated.

"But not here," Gaia interjected "come, let us retire to the meeting hall."


	10. Chapter 10

**Before I start this chapter, I'd like to say…WOO I hit the ten-chapter mark, also, as a friendly reminder, I do appreciate comments, positive or negative.**

Chapter 10

The vanguards had spent the last three hours describing the events from when they found the dragonfly village to the battle with Leon.

"So this _human,_ this _Leon. _Did he say how he was going to release the dark master." Terrador asked.

"All he said about that, was that he needed something from me and Cynder. He did take some of my blood, so I assume that's part of it." Spyro replied.

"Whatever he needed from Cynder, he must not have been able to take it at that moment, which is why he kidnapped her." Vulcan concluded.

"We have to find them before he releases the dark master." Anima said.

"We'll dispatch the scouts immediately. Perhaps we can ask the cheetahs to send out falcons so we can keep this horrible event from occurring." Volteer said.

"That won't be necessary." Spyro said. "Ignitus told me that the pool of visions would show me the way."

"Are you sure?" Boltor asked. Spyro nodded and the council rose from their pedestals, "Then we must not delay."

They led the vanguards through the door in the back of the meeting hall and up the long flight of stairs to the top of the highest tower of the city. The room was open to the outside and the pool of visions sat in the center. Spyro approached the pool and stared into the shimmering liquid. He concentrated hard on what he wanted to know. At first nothing happened, but then the pool began to change colors and Spyro felt his consciousness being pulled into the pool.

_He flying away from Warfang at a speed that no dragon could obtain. He approached a waterfall that he recognized as Moonlight Falls; to the left of the waterfall was a cave with orc sentries guarding the entrance. Spyro flew by the entrance and continued down the rock wall a little ways before he came across a smaller hole just big enough for a small dragon to fit through. He was pulled into the hole, the tunnel beyond was long and dark. When he emerged from the other side, he found himself at the end of a hallway with multiple rooms. He passed a few rooms coming to a stop near a room with many charts and notes stuck to the walls._

"That's it!" He exclaimed snapping out of his trance.

"Have you found them?" Cyril asked hopefully.

"No, but I know where their going; Moonlight falls." 

"That's only a two day flight." Nitro stated.

"Then let's get going." Flare said.

"Yeah, maybe we can get there before they do." Zephyr said.

"We don't want to do that." Spyro stated.

"Why not?" Zephyr asked.

"Because there are still orcs in the cave."

"So?" Fang began, "We can kill a few orcs no problem."

"I-I see," Sting said. The dragons turned to face him. "I-If we a-attack them, a-and they m-manage to e-escape, t-they may s-send a s-scout to tell L-Leon to s-stay away."

"Then we give them a day's head start." Charlotte suggested.

"That should work." Spyro said, "So for now, we have to get as much training today as we can."

"Indeed," Terrador said, "you dragons _must _be ready to fight this time."

"Get to the classrooms quickly. I'll begin the lectures on basic melee combat." Volteer said.

"Oh ancestors, if we give them to you they won't be ready for a week." Cyril interjected.

"Why I never-"

"Can you two do that later?" Nitro interrupted.

"I'm sorry, Volteer, but Cyril is right to a degree." Gaia began "We need to focus on hands-on training."

"Then that would be your job, captain." Vulcan stated looking at Spyro.

"Right. Everyone down to the training grounds." Spyro ordered.

"Yes, sir." The vanguards said in unison before taking off and banking around the tower towards the training ground.

The orcs had traveled for about two days, stopping only to hunt, sleep, and gather water. Leon would only take a small amount from his shares before passing the rest to Cynder. When morning came, Leon would volunteer to carry Cynder, to make sure that the orcs wouldn't pester her behind his back. Nightfall came quickly on the third day, and the group stopped for the night. Cynder and Leon took their usual place next to a fire that Leon had built. When Cynder had finished her meal she turned to Leon and said, "I want my memories back."

Leon stared hard at her for a moment "Are you sure?"

"I am."

Leon continued to stare at her before saying, "Very well."

He then closed his eyes and searched his mind for Cynder's memories. Once he had gathered them all he opened his eyes and dark lightning crackled in his palms. "Close your eyes." he ordered.

Cynder did as she was told and Leon placed his hand on her head. Cynder could feel a tingling sensation on her head as Leon transferred the memories to her mind. When he had finished Cynder opened her eyes and looked up at Leon questioningly.

"Taking one's memories is instantaneous," He explained "but putting them back takes time. It will all come back to you." Cynder nodded and lay her head down while Leon put out the fire. "We reach the cave tomorrow." He said before lying down to sleep.

Spyro made his way to his bedchamber, a trip he hated making alone. He attempted to replace his morbid thoughts with reflections of today's training. Fang seemed to improve on his shadow power, which would have a key role in Spyro's plan. Spyro also noticed that Twitch stayed suspiciously close to Zephyr, "Hmm, I suppose that they might make a good couple." He thought to himself. As he brushed aside the curtain of his bedchamber, he was surprised to see that Sting was waiting for him. "Sting? What's going on?"

"I-I just w-wanted to ask y-you something." Sting replied

"Well, go ahead."

Sting was silent for a moment, not entirely sure how he could word the question. "Do y-you truly c-care f-for Cynder?"

Spyro was shocked that Sting had asked such a thing, "Of course I do. I've cared for her ever since I first saw her."

"G-good, r-remember that."

"Why do you ask?"

"B-because I h-have a f-feeling that b-before this i-is over, y-your relationship w-will be t-tested."

"What makes you say that?"

"I-I'm not s-sure, just a f-feeling," He then began walking to the curtain "but i-if you r-remember how much y-you c-care for her, I-I'm sure y-you'll make it t-through." Sting went through the curtain without another word, leaving Spyro to ponder his words.

Spyro looked at the washbasin that was dug into the left of the bedchamber and, after realizing how bad he smelled, decided to take a bath. He placed his paws on the wheel mechanism and began turning it. The basin was quickly filled with water and Spyro eased him self into the steaming water, and allowed the filth to be lifted from his scales. He dunked his head under the water a few times to clean his horns before relaxing against the edge of the basin. Before he realized it he had fallen asleep.

_Spyro found himself at the pool of visions, but he immediately noticed that something was horribly wrong. He looked out at the city, and immediately his eyes widened in horror. The sky was the color of blood, the main gates had been blown apart, and the bodies of moles, cheetah's, and dragons alike littered the streets around burning buildings. It was then that Spyro looked at the base of the tower, only to see the bodies of the vanguards and council members piled on top of one another, covered in blood as there eyes stared out lifelessly into space._

"_Beautiful, isn't it?" Spyro spun around to see Leon, arms crossed, leaning against the railing behind Spyro._

"_You!" Spyro said menacingly as tears fell heavily from his eyes. "This is all your fault!"_

"_Don't give him all the credit," a familiar voice said. Spyro looked to his left to see Malefore sitting on his haunches as he stared at the purple dragon, clearly amused by his sorrow. "You failed them, Spyro, all that you see is because of you."_

"_No! I tried my best to stop you!"_

"_You tried your best?" Leon asked clearly taunting the young dragon. "You didn't even lift a talon to help your friends."_

"_I'll kill you!" Spyro screamed, "I'll kill you all!" He closed his eyes as his rage began taking over_

"_I guess that means you'll have to kill her too." Leon stated._

_Spyro opened his eyes to see a black dragoness sitting next to Leon a ferocious look in her eyes, "Cynder?" Cynder opened her mouth and unleashed a beam of convexity directly at Spyro._

"No!" Spyro screamed as he snapped out of his nap. He gasped heavily as his tears continued to fall into the bathwater. He looked towards the curtain to make sure that no one had heard him scream before looking down at his reflection. "Just a dream." He thought to himself, "Just a dream."

He used his tail to pull the small rubber plug to drain the water before lifting himself out of the warm water. He shivered as the cold air hit his scales and quickly grabbed the linen towel that hung to the right of the bath. He dried himself off before dropping onto the cushions and covering himself with the sheets. "Goodnight Cynder." He whispered to himself before falling asleep.

The next morning, the vanguards stood ready to leave as Spyro descended the stairs. "Ready to get your mate back?" Zephyr asked smiling.

"Definitely." Spyro said, smiling back.

"Hold up!" The vanguards turned to see Sparx rushing at them. He stopped to catch his breath before facing the vanguards. "I'm coming too."

"Sparx, its gonna be dangerous." Spyro argued.

"I don't care," Sparx began "and besides, remember our deal?"

Spyro sighed defeated "Yeah, I remember. Thanks bro."

"Anytime, and don't forget, Cynder is my family now too."

"I'm sure she'll be happy to hear that."

"She might, but I'm not telling her." Spyro chuckled at his brother. "I'm ready when you are, captain." Sparx gave his brother a salute

"Then what are we still doing here?" Flare said "lets go!" he leaped off the ground and took to the air.

"My brother's such a hot-head." Charlotte said to Crystal "Can't really see what you see in him."

"What?" Crystal exclaimed blushing. Charlotte laughed and took off after her brother. The other vanguards took off after the two fire breathers, beating their wings hard to catch up.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

As the Leon and the orcs approached the cave, the sentries guarding the entrance stared at Cynder with looks of disgust.

"Stay alert." Leon said, causing the orcs to snap their eyes forward once again.

"Think we'll have company?" Gwar asked as the cave opened up into a large hallway.

"I'm counting on it." Leon said back, "The purple one will be after his mate."

"So? There's little chance that they can find us out here."

"Yes, but there's one factor that you've forgotten to include."

"And what's that?"

"Love."

"Love." Gwar repeated as they rounded the corner. "Love is just an emotion for the weak-hearted."

"Perhaps, but if it is strong enough, then it can cause it can give anyone the power to do almost anything."

"Like what?"

"Well, look what happened to Malefore." Leon said as they stopped in front of his bedchamber. "In any case, I know that they'll be coming for her, and soon, so be ready."

"I'll go ready the troops." Gwar said before taking off the back down the hallway.

As Leon carried Cynder into the room, Cynder noticed that the walls we're covered with notes and scrolls on the realm of convexity and designs for weapons made from dark crystals. There were books on the anatomy of dragons that lay stacked in one corner. Leon laid Cynder on a cushion before turning his attention to his worktable and fiddling with an odd device. It was a hose with a small spout on one end, and a mouthpiece big enough to fit around a small dragon's muzzle. It was obvious to Cynder that the device had ben made for her.

"You were right, you know." She said, drawing Leon's attention away from his work for a split second.

"About what?"

"About love. You sound like you speak from experience"

"I did know love at one point…but that was a long time ago."

"What happened?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Bullshit!" Cynder snapped causing Leon to stare at her. "You keep saying that your past doesn't matter, yet, it has caused the deaths of thousands of innocent dragons! How can you call what you've done 'justice' when we have no idea what we even did to you!"

Leon was silent for a long moment. "You really want to know?"

"Yes."

Leon sighed deeply before searching through the pile of books and pulling out an old black book. He knelt down and held the book up. "Do you know what this is?" Cynder shook her head. "This is a book I stole from the Chronicler's library about two years ago." Immediately Cynder's thoughts went to Ignitus, but she was eased when she realized that Ignitus had only been the Chronicler for about a month. "Describing what I went through to get this book would take hours. It's a history of my race that I took it to cover my tracks , however, since I'm sure that your mate has already told your superiors about me, it is of no further use to me." He set the book by Cynder's bound paws, "Take it with you, it should have the answers you seek…that is, if you can escape."

"What makes you think I can escape?" Cynder looked at Leon questionably. Leon stared at her for a moment and Cynder understood. "Love?"

"You were always a fast learner." Leon said before returning to his work.

"We'll rest here." Said Spyro as the vanguards came to an open field. They had been flying all day, following Moonlight River upstream to find the falls. They landed as the sun began to set, and Spyro began giving orders. "Charlotte, Twitch, Fang, you guys see if you can find any food to the west, Zephyr, Sting, and I will see what we can find in the east, Flare and Crystal, I want you to find some wood for a fire."

"Yes sir." The vanguards chimed in unison.

"Wait, what about me?" Sparx asked.

"I need you to stay here so we can find this spot again." Spyro said.

"So…I'm gonna be used as a lantern…Great." Sparx said sarcastically.

"Come on, Sparx, its not that bad." Flare said reassuringly.

"Whatever, just go." Sparx waved them away.

"Okay guys, we'll meet back here when the sun completely disappears. Don't go too far." Spyro said before he, Zephyr and Sting took off towards the west.

"You two play nice, now." Charlotte teased, causing Crystal to blush.

"We will, and Fang, take good care of my sister for me." Flare teased back. Now it was Charlotte's turn to blush.

"Don't worry, I will." Fang assured him before he, Charlotte, and Twitch took off towards the east.

"Shall we?" Flare asked Crystal.

"Shall we what?" Crystal asked skeptical of what the dragon meant.

"Uh…the firewood?"

"Oh…right." Crystal mentally slapped herself for thinking that Flare would suggest such a thing. "Come on." She said, quickly walking into the woods before Flare could question her.

As Sting searched the ground for food Zephyr poked him in the side with her wing barb. "How's it going?" she asked.

"F-fine" Sting replied.

Zephyr had never talked to the black dragon before, but she had heard that he's very observant and she wanted to know something. "What do you think of Twitch?"

"I t-think that you t-two would m-make a good p-pair, i-if that's w-what you wanted t-to know."

Zephyr blushed. "Do you…Do you think he likes me?"

"A-absolutely."

"Really?"

"If you r-really w-want to know, try g-getting close to him and act f-flirtatiously, and if he starts t-twitching then you'll h-have your answer."

"But…I'm not sure what to do."

"Don't w-worry, it'll c-come n-naturally once y-your close e-enough. J-just make s-sure you d-don't lay it on t-to hard."

Zephyr was about to ask something else, but Spyro yelled, "There." The other two dragons looked down to see a herd of deer grazing in a field below them. "Sting, go left. Zephyr, go right." The two dragons did as they were told before the formation banked towards the ground.

Spyro landed on the back of a large buck and dug his teeth into the back of it's neck the deer thrashed wildly before Spyro jerked his head, snapping the buck's neck. As the other deer fled Zephyr landed and struck the ground causing a pillar of earth to send several of the deer skyward. Sting saw his opportunity and flew by the falling deer, slitting their throats with his tailblade. The dragons watched as the other deer fled, before looking at the four deer they had slaughtered.

"I'll take these two if you guys can take the other two." Spyro said. Sting and Zephyr nodded before grabbing the other two deer and taking off. Spyro struggled to get one deer on his back before grabbing the other deer in his paws and taking off. Sting and Zephyr slowed their pace so Spyro could keep up.

Crystal and Flare gathered small branches for firewood and packed them in a satchel made of large leaves and vines that was tied around Flare. "You doing okay?" Crystal asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Flare replied. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Uh…well, do you have certain dragon that you're fond of back home?" Flare asked blushing slightly.

Crystal was taken aback, knowing what the dragon was going to ask next. "Uh…n-no, no one in particular."

"Oh, well, in that case I was…thinking that maybe you and I could uh…"

"Are you…asking me to be your mate?"

"Well…I mean, if you wanted too."

Crystal thought for a minute before putting on a very flirtatious smile, "Well, I suppose I could give it a try." She said, brushing past him and lightly tapping him on the cheek with her tailspade. "But you'll have to work for it."

"Y-yes ma'am." Flare stammered, causing Crystal to giggle.

Fang, Charlotte, and Twitch were flying back to the campsite, with two large sheep that they had found. "So, mind if I ask you two something?"

"I think you just did." Fang said sarcastically. Charlotte smacked the black dragon upside the head with her paw, "I was just joking." He said rubbing his head, "What's up, Twitch?"

"Well, I was just wondering what you guys think of Zephyr?"

"I think she's a good fighter and an excellent friend."

"I don't think that that's what he wanted to hear." Charlotte said playfully. "Twitch, do you want to know what Zephyr thinks of you?"

"…Kinda." Twitch said shamefully.

"If you're so curious, why don't you ask her yourself?" Fang asked.

"I can't do that!" Twitch exclaimed.

"Has she given any indication that she likes you?" Charlotte asked.

"I don't think I would know if she had."

"Look," Fang began, "give it a little bit, and if you notice that she's acting a little bit more friendly than usual, than I'd say go for it."

"But don't come on too strong." Charlotte added.

They approached the camp to find Spyro and his group had beaten them there. "Nice catch." Spyro said as he examined the two sheep.

Zephyr took the opportunity to put into play what Sting had suggested. She approached Twitch and asked, "So, how long did it take you to find these two."

"Uh… only a half hour." Twitch said, watching as the dragoness brushed past him and rubbed her side against his. "That's _definitely _more friendly than usual." Twitch thought to himself.

"Nice work." Zephyr said flirtatiously as her tailbarb gently brushed against his snout.

It was then that Flare and Crystal emerged from the woods. Everyone immediately noticed that their tails were intertwined.

"I see you two are getting along." Charlotte teased.

Flare and Crystal blushed, but continued smiling. Crystal began removing the wood from Flare's satchel and stacked them together to make a fire, while Sting and Fang used their tailblades to skin and gut the animals.

Charlotte approached her brother with an evil grin, "So, anything…_interesting _happen in the woods?"

"Uh…w-we just talked." Flare stammered. "Why? What else would we be doing?"

"Do I really have to say it?"

"Charlotte!" Flare scolded, "What makes you think that we would do something like that?"

"Well, let's see…you're a male, she's a female…so it seems only natural that two dragons, alone in the woods, would have a little fun with each other."

"No! Nothing like that happened!" Flare's face had turned from a light orange to a deep crimson from embarrassment.

"Okay, okay, calm down. I was just messing with you." Charlotte chuckled. Flare glared at his sister, who only smiled back before setting fire to the wood they had gathered.

"They make a cute couple." Zephyr said bumping hips with Twitch.

"Y-yeah, I guess." Twitch said nervously.

Zephyr turned to face Twitch, and stared directly into his yellow eyes. "So, do you have a special someone?"

Twitch began convulsing wildly. Zephyr smiled, getting the reaction she was hoping for.

"Don't come on too strong." Twitch repeated Charlotte's words in his head, over and over again.

"So is that a yes, or a no?" Zephyr whispered seductively.

"Aw, screw it." Twitch thought. Without warning, he pulled Zephyr into a deep kiss.

At first, Zephyr was surprised, then a tingling sensation swept over her and she leaned into the kiss.

Twitch broke away and immediately looked at the ground, his face red against his yellow hide. "I'm sorry."

"Hey Twitch!" Twitch looked up to see that the other vanguards had seen what he had done. "You came on a little strong there, pal." Charlotte said smiling.

Twitch looked back at the ground before Zephyr lifted his chin with her tail and brought his eyes back to hers. "What took you so long?" she asked.

"It's about time." Spyro thought to himself as he looked on at the two dragons.

The vanguards ate the meat quickly, and then began bedding down for the night. Zephyr and Twitch lay next to each other, wings draped over one another. Flare sidled up next to his sister.

"Ah-Ah," Charlotte motioned toward Crystal. "I think that she'll want your company more than I will."

"Are you sure?" Flare asked.

"I'll be fine." She assured him.

Flare nodded before walking over and lying down next to the ice dragoness, who only blushed as the fire dragon draped his wing around her.

Fang looked at Charlotte as she watched her brother lay his head down and fall asleep.

"W-what are y-you waiting f-for?" Sting asked.

"What do you mean?" Fang asked skeptically.

"G-go to her."

"But what about you?"

"Y-you can't k-keep watching your l-life pass you b-by, just t-to take care of m-me."

"Will you be alright?"

"F-Fang, you're just m-moving a few y-yards away."

"Well if you're certain."

"I-I am."

Fang nodded and made his way over to the fire dragoness, who didn't notice him until he draped his wing over her back. She turned, startled by the black dragon.

"You looked lonely." He said.

"Thanks." She said before the two laid their heads down and closed their eyes.

Spyro looked at the three couples as they slept and he immediately felt lonely. "I'll see you soon, Cynder." He whispered to himself before laying his head down and closing his eyes.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

_Cynder found herself flying across an open field but she found herself unable to feel the wind, or the sun, or anything. She shot straight into the air before barrel rolling down to the earth below. As the ground closed in on her, she tried to pull up only to realize that she had no control of her body. She finally pulled out of the dive, but it was to late. She heard a popping noise as she hit the ground and skidded a few feet. She rose to her feet and immediately held her left foreleg in front of her. It was clearly dislocated, but that's not what caught her attention. She noticed that she was younger…much younger. It was then that she realized that this was one of her memories. "Daddy!" she screamed as tears ran down her face. She looked up to see that Leon had appeared from the shadows next to her. "Run!" She thought to herself, but instead of running, she held up her broken forelimb and let Leon examine it._

"_You need to pull up sooner." Leon said in a kind voice that surprised Cynder. He then held his arm out and said, "I want you to bite down on my arm."_

"_But, I'll hurt you." Cynder protested._

"_Good, try to draw blood."_

_Cynder did as she was told and tried to pierce Leon's flesh. Without warning Leon grabbed her injured forelimb and gave it a hard jerk. The bones realigned with a loud pop, causing Cynder to bite down harder from the pain. When the pain subsided, Cynder released Leon's arm. Leon then fumbled around in his satchel and pulled out some bandages. He began wrapping Cynder's forelimb before Cynder gasped. She had left several deep puncture wounds around his arm, and they were bleeding quite badly._

"_Daddy, I'm sorry!" She cried as she began to sob again._

"_Don't be, I'm fine." He said as he wiped away her tears. She looked up to see he had a reassuring smile on his face, "Now please stop crying. You know I always hate it when you cry."_

"Done." Leon said, snapping Cynder from her sleep. He examined the completed device before walking over to Cynder and strapping it around her muzzle. Cynder didn't fight it, as she was too busy wondering if her dream was really one of her memories. "You'll feel a pulling sensation, but not much else." Leon pulled out the three crystals from around his neck and held the nozzle of the device up to the small hole at the top of the empty small crystal before pressing the small switch on the side of the mouthpiece. Cynder felt suction in the back of her throat, it wasn't painful, but an odd sensation nonetheless. A small drop of black liquid dropped into the small crystal, followed by another a couple of minutes later. "This could take a while." Leon sighed.

Little did he know that the vanguards were crouched in the bushes a few yards from the entrance to his home. Spyro studied the four orc sentries that guarded the entrance before turning to the other vanguards and whispering "Alright, Fang. The other entrance is a few meters that way, just follow the wall. Sparx, go with him, he'll need you to light the way. When you hear the signal go in, grab Cynder, get out, and signal us."

"Got it!" Fang whispered back before disappearing into the brush with Sparx.

"That should do it." Leon stated turning off the device and unstrapping it from Cynder's muzzle. He walked back to the work table and examined the black liquid before pouring its contents in the larger crystal. He then added the blood, turning the liquid from black to a rust color. "One last thing." Leon stated. Cynder watched as Leon removed the glove on his left hand and gripped his dagger in his right. He ran the blade across his ungloved hand, cutting the flesh. He held his bleeding hand to the hole on top of the larger crystal and allowed a little bit of his blood to enter the crystal. The liquid inside turned from rust colored to an eerie purple. Leon examined the crystal, satisfied with his work. He grabbed a healing herb and wrapped it around his hand before stashing the glowing crystal back under his armor and putting his glove back on.

"So, what happens now?" Cynder asked.

"I go to the burning plains and release Malefore." Leon said plainly.

"I meant, what happens to me?"

"Well," Leon said kneeling beside her, dagger in hand. "Malefore and Gwar both would probably have me kill you…" A slight sense of fear gripped Cynder "but, I'll offer you a choice…join us, or die."

"You expect me to betray my friends and my mate?"

"They're all going to die anyway."

"No! I'm not going to turn my back to everyone I care about and I'm certainly not going to join the dark master again."

Leon sighed deeply "I figured you would say that." As fast as lightning he grabbed Cynder's head and faced her mouth away from him so she could not use her breath attacks.

"You don't have to do this!" Cynder screamed as Leon raised his dagger above his head. "Father, please!" Leon stopped mid-swing, his eyes looking questionably at Cynder. It was then that an explosion shook the cave. Leon looked up to see several orcs run by his door towards the cave entrance. He glanced back down at Cynder, who looked back at him with pleading eyes, before releasing her and retrieving his javelin and shield.

Fang stuck his head out of the hole to see a long hallway lined with doors, "Great, now I just need to find the right door." He said to himself. He saw Leon emerge from one of the doors on the right, he didn't notice the black dragon glaring at him from the hole and headed towards the cave entrance. Fang emerged from the hole with Sparx close behind. "This way." Fang whispered. He led Sparx to the door that Leon had come from. Cynder lay faced away from the doorway, tears running down her face.

"Someone call for a rescue?" Sparx said.

Cynder snapped her head around to face him and Fang "Sparx! Fang! You came!"

"Well, I was getting bored without you around." Sparx said playfully.

"I missed you too."

"We need to get out of here." Fang said as he began cutting the ropes around Cynder's feet with his tail blade. When he had finished, he looked at Cynder's wings, which were still in Leon's cast. "Who put that on you?"

Cynder was about to answer when Sparx interrupted "Who cares? Let's get out of hear before that one guy comes back."

"I don't think that Cynder will fit with her wings like that."

"Well, cut it off her."

"It'll take time. Sparx, watch the hallway."

Meanwhile, the other vanguards battled the orcs outside the cave. Zephyr fired an earth bullet that struck an orc in the gut, breaking his ribs and sending him flying into three other orcs. Another orc leaped at her from the side only to get zapped by Twitch and fall to the ground, dead. Sting his wind breath to blast a group of orcs into the air and incinerated by Flare and Charlotte's combined fire-breath. Crystal froze several orcs in place while Spyro fired an earth bullet, shattering them. Leon ran out of the cave and locked eyes with Spyro. He raised his hand and fired dark lightning at the purple dragon. Spyro dodged and fired his own lightning at Leon. Leon raised his shield and the lighting bounced off his shield and struck a tree a few yards away.

"Shit, what do I have to do to kill this guy?" Spyro thought to himself. He leaped at Leon who dodged and swiped at Spyro. Spyro ducked as his javelin whizzed over his head before head butting Leon in the gut. The wind rushed out of Leon, before Spyro smacked him with his tail, sending Leon rolling across the ground. Leon managed to use his momentum to roll onto his feet, before sinking into shadow and coming up under Spyro. He punched hard and connected with Spyro's muzzle and sent him flying into the air. Spyro regained his balance in the air, but Leon created a swift downdraft that brought Spyro crashing into the ground. Spyro slowly picked himself up off the ground and glared daggers at Leon. "Fang, you better hurry up." He thought to himself.

"Got it!" Fang exclaimed as the cast fell away from Cynder's wings.

"Great, can we go now?" Sparx asked.

"Yeah, come on Cynder."

"Wait, I'm taking this with us." Cynder said grabbing the black book up in her mouth.

"What is it?" Fang asked.

"No time, we gotta go!" Sparx interjected.

"Right, let's go." Fang said before he, Cynder, and Sparx dashed out of the room, back down the hallway, and into the small hole. The hole zigzagged until they came back outside. "Can you fly?" Fang asked.

Cynder took the book in her paws and tested her wings. "Well enough." She stated.

The dragons took to the skies and Fang let out a pillar of shadow fire directly into the air.

"That's the signal!" Crystal called out when she saw the black fire.

"Retreat!" Twitch yelled.

Spyro looked between the shadow fire and Leon who still had his eyes fixed on him. He took off away from the cave with the other vanguards close behind.

A line of orc archers took a kneeling position next to Leon. They readied their bows and awaited their command. "Fire!" Leon yelled causing orcs to released their arrows.

"Look out!" Flare yelled as an arrow whizzed by his cheek. Several more arrows flew by the vanguards, one hit and lodged into Twitch's hind leg and two pierced the thin membrane of Crystal's wings. She screamed as she began losing altitude. Flare flapped hard and managed to catch the ice dragoness on his back.

"Thanks." She said looking down at him.

"No problem. Now just relax, we'll land soon."

Leon looked on as the dragons disappeared over the trees. A small chuckle broke his concentration.

"Cowardly dragons." Gwar stated as he continued to smile.

"How many did you count?" Leon asked.

"Seven, why?"

"Because I counted nine last time, in the mushroom forest."

"So?"

"So, if there were nine, and we kidnapped one…" Leon waited patiently for Gwar to complete his sentence while they began walking back down the hallways.

"I'm still not following you."

"Nine minus one equals what?"

"Um, eight?"

"Good."

"But what does that matter?"

Leon had to hold himself back from slapping some sense into the orc. "If there were only seven, then what happened to the eighth one?"

Leon could see realization in the orc's eyes as they approached Leon's room. Leon stepped through the doorway, and his eyes immediately fell upon Cynder's broken cast.

"She's gone!" Gwar exclaimed.

"No shit!" Leon spat. "It doesn't matter, we got what needed. We're leaving, now."

"But what about supplies?"

"Pack only the essentials. We have to release Malefore now, before those dragons come back."

"Will do." Gwar nodded before taking off back down the hallway.

Leon sighed before walking over and picking up the broken cast. He thought about what Cynder had called him. "Father…" He whispered to himself, "She is no daughter of mine…she's a monstrous dragon and I'm a human…end of story."

Spyro and the other vanguards flew to the rendezvous spot to meet with Fang, Sparx, and Cynder. As the trees cleared Spyro could see the two dragons and his brother on the ground waiting for them. They landed and Spyro immediately ran over and embraced his dragoness. Tears of joy flowed from both their eyes as they continued to embrace each other.

"Did he hurt you?" Spyro asked looking straight into her eyes.

"No." She said returning his gaze.

"Thank the ancestors." He let out a relieved sigh. "Did he get what he wanted?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Then we have to go after him."

"But we don't know where he's going." Flare interrupted.

Spyro looked at the ground and thought. It was then that he noticed the book between Cynder's paws. "What's that?"

"Oh," Cynder had almost forgotten about the book. "It's a book from the Chroniclers library."

"Where did you get it?"

"Leon gave it to me."

Spyro looked skeptically at his mate. "Why?"

"I'm not sure. I just asked him why he wanted to kill us, and he gave me this book and said that it should have the answer."

"We should take it to the Ignitus. Maybe we can find out where they're going."

"But where do we find him?" Crystal asked.

"At the moon temple. It's a day's travel over the ocean if we fly through the night."

"Then let's hurry." Twitch said. The vanguards nodded and turned to their captains.

Spyro looked back at Cynder, who stared at the ground deep in thought. "Fly ahead." He ordered, "We'll catch up." The vanguards nodded again and took off. Spyro nuzzled Cynder under her chin. "You okay?"

"I'm not sure." She replied sadly.

"What happened?"

"Leon, he…he…"

"He what?"

"He gave me my memories back."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

" Maybe...but I'm not entirely sure."

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe we should catch up with the other's, I'll tell you then."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

As the vanguards continued flying over the ocean, Cynder recounted the events that had taken place after she had been kidnapped. After about four hours of listening, Spyro found himself baffled.

"You called him father?" Spyro asked.

"I didn't mean to. It's just that my dream seemed so real." Cynder replied. "But, what bothers me is that it when I said that, he seemed be affected by it."

"Well, if I called you 'mother', wouldn't you be a little confused." Sparx interjected.

"How long have you been listening?" Cynder asked slightly annoyed.

"Ever since you two started talking." Sparx replied plainly.

"And you don't consider eavesdropping a little rude?"

"I wasn't 'eavesdropping', I was learning about my newest family member."

"Aw, you do care about me." Cynder said playfully.

"Maybe just a little bit."

"Anyway, Sparx is right," Spyro began, "he was probably just confused."

"But what about all the stuff he said at the mushroom forest?" Cynder asked looking at her mate.

"He was probably just trying to get under your scales," Sparx spoke up, "and it worked."

"Maybe…but what about him protecting me from the orcs, and healing me."

"He needed you alive." Spyro replied. He looked over at Cynder who stared down at the sea below. "Maybe Ignitus can tell you more."

The vanguards flew for another ten hours before finally reaching the foggy rock island that Spyro had visited during the night of eternal darkness. "It's just up here." Spyro said indicating to a stone staircase that ran up the cliff wall ahead of them. As they walked up the cliff, the fog only seemed to thicken. When they had reached the top the visibility was dangerously low

"I can barely see anything." Charlotte said.

"Hold on." Cynder said. She then used her wind power to blow away the veil of fog to reveal a large crescent moon shaped door. The vanguards gaped at the massive door.

"How are we supposed to get through that?" Flare asked. Spyro was about to answer when a grinding sound caught his attention. The massive door rotated until an opening appeared at the bottom.

"H-he's e-expecting us." Sting said. Cynder gathered the book in her mouth and the vanguards descended into the darkness.

"It's dark." Zephyr whispered.

"Stay close." Twitch said, draping his wing around his mate. As they traveled further down, the small pathway opened up into a hallway. When they stepped forward, blue fire lit the torches along the wall, revealing intricate designs of dragons of all kinds carved into the wall. As they walked down the long hallway, the vanguards couldn't help but marvel at the various illustrations along the walls. After what seemed like an hour of walking the finally reached a circular chamber with a large shimmering hour glass in the center.

"Ignitus, are you here?" Spyro called out.

"Of course, where else would I be?" Ignitus said as he stepped into the light. "It's good to see you again, Cynder." Cynder set the book on the floor before, running over and hugging Ignitus around the foreleg. Ignitus patted her head reassuringly before turning to the other vanguards, "I've been monitoring your progress, young dragons."

"Then you know why we have come." Cynder stated releasing his foreleg.

"I do… but Cynder, this book might do more harm than good, especially to you."

"I don't care, we have to know…_I_ have to know."

Ignitus sighed deeply, "Very well, gather round young vanguards." The book floated in front of Ignitus and the vanguards sat beside the blue dragon. As the book opened, Spyro could feel his subconscious being drawn out of his body and into the pages before him.

_Spyro found himself flying over an unknown city at the base of a large mountain. _

_He had no control over his movement, so he let his mind relax as the events before him unfolded. As he began descending towards the city, he could see hundreds of humans like Leon filling the streets. Some were busy carrying goods from the various stores, others simply chatted happily about various subjects while their children played. Watching the happiness of these people made Spyro wonder how a monster like Leon could have possibly come from such a joyous society. As he continued gliding forward a massive white tower rose high into the air and nearly blacked out the sun. Spyro kept gliding toward the large, gold embroidered doors, just when he thought he was about to slam into the doors, they became transparent and Spyro slipped through unharmed. The circular main hall of the tower had large marble pillars that rose to the ceiling, which had a mural of human warriors with their swords held high in triumph. Small sets of marble stairs led to two separate hallways toward the front of the chamber. A large circular door stood opposite of the entrance. It had a wolf with a rising sun at its back carved into it._

"_Your majesty, with more scientists, we could easily unlock the powers that the dark crystals hold." Two men emerged from the hallway to the left, one was bald with a white robe that covered his body, the other had a black beard and black hair, he wore the same leather armor that Leon wore, except he also had a red cape with the same symbol of the wolf and sun in black embroidery, making Spyro believe that he was the leader of this society._

"_I simply cannot increase taxes on my people for your experiments." The bearded man said._

"_What about your son. Surely he can help us with our studies." The bald man said._

"_Hmm…Leon does seem to have a special interest in your research. Tell you what, I'll bring it up to him when I see him."_

"_So, he really is a prince." Spyro thought to himself._

"_Much appreciated. May the sun light your path, your majesty." The bald man said as he headed for the door._

"_And yours as well." The bearded man replied. When the large doors had closed the bearded man let out a long sigh._

"_Is something wrong, my king?" a middle aged woman with long black hair and emerald eyes that reminded Spyro of Cynder emerged from the door on the right. She wore an elegant red dress and silver bracelets similar to Cynder's. She walked over and kissed the king on the cheek._

"_It's nothing really, my queen." The king sighed, before wrapping his arm around the woman. "but sometimes I wonder if it had been best if I didn't let the scholars study that confounded energy in the first place."_

"_You mean convexity?" The queen asked. The king nodded "It was a good decision…as long as it is used for the good of all species."_

"_I suppose your right."_

_Just then, three knocks were heard on the door. A guard poked his head in, "My lord, his lordship, Stratus, and his advisor, Cassius, request your audience." The king seemed to light up "Of course. Let them in." the guard nodded and the massive doors swung open. Two dragons entered the chamber, one elder fire dragon with gold armor, and one black dragon with silver armor. "King and Queen Lovidico, how have you been?" The fire breather asked as he and his and the black dragon bowed. Spyro noticed that the black dragon seemed bothered by the act._

_"Stratus, old friend. You know you need not bow to me." the king stated._

_"I only wish to show you the respect you deserve." The elder dragon replied_

_"Your presence is respect enough." The king said smiling "Tell me, friend, what can I assist you with?"_

_"You have been experimenting with dark crystals, correct?"_

_"I have not personally researched them myself...but my scientists, and even my _

_son has been studying them."_

_"Well perhaps you can put my advisor at ease." Stratus turned to the black dragon behind him. "Cassius, explain your concern."_

_"Your majesty, I-" Cassius was cut short as the sound of the massive doors opening caught their attention. Spyro's eyes widened as Leon stepped through the doorway, his purple irises were now a dark brown. He was holding hands with a blonde female, both wore leather armor, except that Leon also wore a royal blue cape, also embroidered with the same wolf and sun as his father's. Both he and the female were laughing joyfully, which made Spyro wonder if this was indeed the same Leon he had fought. They were battered and bruised, but otherwise unharmed. Leon locked eyes with the two dragons and, much to Spyro's surprise, smiled and bowed to them._

_"Stratus, Cassius, what a nice surprise." he said cheerfully._

_"Prince Leon, I see that you have been have been busy." Stratus said studying his bruises._

_"Oh, yes, after choir practice, me and my fiancé, Sierra, went to the training grounds for a quick sparring match." he indicated to the blonde female beside him, who curtsied._

_"My, my, what a lovely young lady." Stratus said._

_"Thank you, your lordship." Sierra said smiling._

"_Her combat skills are as deadly as her looks." Leon stated making Sierra blush slightly._

_"My son, perhaps you can help us with Cassius's concern, since it involves the dark crystals." the king spoke up._

_"Oh, and how may I assist you today, Cassius?" Leon asked inquisitively._

"_I would simply like to know what you plan to do after you've unlocked there full potential." Cassius stated, eyeing Leon with distaste._

"_We're not entirely sure yet, but from what we've gathered, we can turn them into weapons, use them to power machines, and even gain powers similar to your breath attacks…all for defensive purposes, of course."_

"_Hmph." Cassius scoffed "Sounds more like your planning a war against us."_

"_Cassius!" Stratus scolded._

"_Your lordship, making weapons with a substance that they know is toxic to dragons, and attempting to copy our breath ability. You can't deny that they've be come a threat to dragon kind." Cassius shot back._

"_I can assure you that we are not planning an attack." The king stated staring Cassius down._

"_Oh really? Then why have your scouts been seen outside our city walls?"_

"_Your accusations are false." Leon stated._

"_Why should we believe you?"_

"_Because we've been at peace with the dragons for over five hundred years! Why would we ruin that now?" Spyro could hear anger begin to build up in Leon's voice._

"_Who knows? But using an such an evil force like the dark crystals to gain power is an attack in itself."_

"_The crystals are only as evil as the ones who use them."_

"_That's what I'm afraid of." Cassius stated._

"_Cassius!" Stratus scolded again._

"_If you came here looking for a fight, keep it up, you may get what you asked for." Leon took a defensive stance while glaring daggers at Cassius._

"_Leon, stand down this instant!" The king ordered. Leon glanced at his father before backing off._

"_Cassius, I order you to return to Warfang, now!" Stratus yelled. Cassius glanced at the elderly dragon before heading for the door. Leon pulled Sierra out of the way of the furious dragon, making sure that she was behind him should Cassius decide to attack them. As he exited the tower he glanced back at Stratus._

"_These insects will be the death of you." He stated before taking off._

_Stratus watched him go before turning back to the king. "I apologize for him. He has always had a problem with the humans." _

"_Well, no one was hurt at least." The king stated._

"_I will go deal with him immediately." Stratus stated. "It has been good seeing you again, old friend, and you as well queen Lovidico."_

"_Always a pleasure." The queen said curtsying._

"_May the sun light your path." The king said._

"_And may the ancestors watch over you." Stratus said back before heading for the door. He stopped and glanced at Leon one more time before exiting the tower. When the doors shut behind him, Leon and Sierra approached the king._

"_You must keep your anger in check, my son. Especially if you are to become a great assassin and, even more importantly, the king." The king stated._

"_Father, he was out of line and I couldn't-" Leon was cut short as the king backhanded him across his face. He seemed unaffected by the blow, but it did leave a red mark across his face._

"_Acting on emotions such as those will get you killed, Leon!" The king scolded. Leon looked down at the his feet in shame. His father relaxed and put his hand on Leon's shoulder. "You know that I, your mother, and Sierra all want the best for you." Leon glanced at Sierra, who nodded reassuringly._

"_I know father." He said looking back at his father._

"_That's my boy." The king said before his father pulled him into a hug._

Spyro felt his subconscious being drawn back into his body. He looked at the other vanguards, who all had the same confused look on their faces.

"Did you guys see that too?" Flare asked.

"Yeah, was…was that the same guy that's been trying to kill us?" Twitch asked.

"It looked like it." Zephyr said.

"This still doesn't help us." Fang stated.

"He's right," Charlotte began. "Master Ignitus, not to be rude but can you…speed up to the important parts."

"I suppose I should," Ignitus began "time _is_ of the essence."

The vanguards looked on as the book began flipping through pages. Once it had stopped, Spyro could, once again, feel his subconscious slip out of his body.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

_Spyro was, once, again inside the main hall of the tower. The king was waiting patiently with his queen; both had worried looks on their faces. Spyro noticed that the queen was now in leather armor as well, and both of them were armed; the queen with a longbow and the king with a broad sword. The sound of the massive doors opening drew the couple's attention. Leon stepped through with two other men. The trio all had matching leather armor; a silver javelin was strapped to Leon's back while the other guards were equipped with bows and short swords. Spyro could see that Leon's eyes were red, as if he had been crying for some time. The trio bowed to the king and queen._

"_The city of Clarence has been…completely destroyed." Leon stated._

"_Did you find her?" The king asked._

_Leon shook his head and the man on the left spoke up; "We fear she might have been eaten or completely incinerated by the dragons." Leon shot him a look that caused him to fall completely silent._

"_I'm so sorry, my son." The queen tried to comfort him._

"_They'll be time to mourn later." Leon stated._

"_He's right," the king began, "Arcadia is the last remaining human city. I assume that the dragons will attack within the next week. We have to prepare for battle."_

"_You two are dismissed." Leon said two the two other men, who bowed again before exiting the tower._

"_Come Leon, we must discuss with the captain what our next move will be." The family disappeared through the hallway on the left. _

_Time fast-forwarded in front of Spyro, once it had stopped his eyes widened. He was once again over the human city, except that dragons filled the skies. Buildings were on fire and the fire dragons incinerated anyone who wasn't fast enough to get out of the way. Guards who attempted to defend the civilians were quickly torn apart by the dragons. "No!" Spyro screamed in his mind._

_Time fast-forwarded again Spyro was over the burned remains of the city. The bodies of men, woman, and children littered the streets. A single black figure caught Spyro's eye. As he approached the figure, he realized it was Leon. He was digging frantically through the rubble of a collapsed building. Leon stopped digging and staggered back as if he had been struck. Before him lay the bodies of the king and queen. Tears flowed freely from Leon's eyes. He clenched his fists tightly before screaming loudly into the air._

_Time fast-forwarded again and Spyro now found himself in a lit cave. Leon sat at a worktable with vials, papers, and dark crystals strewn about. He held up a light green concoction and added a small dark crystal to the mixture. The crystal dissolved into the green liquid, turning it purple. "This is it." Leon said aloud to himself. He filled a small syringe with the liquid and carried it to a tall mirror. He stared at his reflection for a long time before rolling up his sleeve; He also had braces like his mothers around his arms. Spyro watched as Leon pierced his flesh with the needle and injected its contents into his bloodstream. _

_Once the needle was empty, Leon removed it from under his skin and set it onto the table. After a minute of waiting, Leon sighed deeply, "Another failed experi-". Leon stopped mid-sentence and grasped his head. His face twisted in pain and Spyro watched in horror as veins that spider-webbed Leon's body began glowing purple under his skin. A warped scream emanated from Leon's mouth and a bright white light blinded Spyro. When the light died down Spyro looked at Leon, who lay on the ground. As he got up, Spyro could see that his eyes had turned to the purple color Spyro was used to. He looked at the cave entrance and let loose a massive shockwave of convexity from his body. Spyro yelped as he felt his subconscious being thrown violently back into his body._

Spyro opened his eyes to see that the he and the other vanguards had been blown across the room. Ignitus was helping the vanguards to their feet taking an occasional glance at the book that still floated on the other side of the room.

"You okay bro?" Sparx asked as he hovered above Spyro's head.

"I'm fine." Spyro said, slowly getting to his feet.

"What happened?" Crystal asked.

"I'm not sure." Ignitus said, "Such power…I've never seen anything like it."

"Well…we know why he's trying to kill us." Twitch stated.

"An eye for an eye." Zephyr said

"I don't believe it." Fang began, "There's no way that the dragons would just decide to commit a genocide."

"I'm sure there's more to it than that." Flare assured.

"Ignitus," Cynder began, "is their anything about me in that book?"

"Cynder…I fear that there is only pain in your answer." Ignitus replied, looking at her with sad eyes.

"I need to know."

Ignitus sighed. "Very well."

The vanguards carefully approached the book and their minds, once again drifted into the book.

_Spyro was fast-forwarding through time again. He could see flashes of Leon murdering dragons who were unlucky enough to travel to close to his hideout. Time finally stopped and Spyro found himself at the entrance of the cave that they had rescued Cynder from. He entered the cave and noticed that the hallway had not yet been constructed. Leon sat in his room, meditating. A mysterious voice echoed through the cave. "I know your desires, human."_

_Leon calmly stood up and stared at the entrance to his chamber. "Is that right?" he said._

"_It is." The voice replied. "We both want the same thing…although different reasons."_

"_I refuse to trust someone I can't see." Leon stated. "Show yourself."_

_A purple dragon emerged from the shadows of the doorway. Spyro felt fear grip his heart as he stared at the adolescent Malefore. "I'm aware of the pain that the dragons have caused you."_

"_Oh," Leon said becoming slightly defensive. "and how would you know that?"_

"_Your not the only one who can invade minds."_

"_I suggest you stay out of my mind, dragon." Leon warned. "Unless you want your entrails spread along these walls."_

"_I didn't come here to fight." Malefore said raising his paw._

"_Then you shouldn't have come here at all."_

"_I've only wish to help you."_

"_The last thing I need…is help from a dragon."_

"_The enemy of my enemy is my friend, correct?"_

"_But if your friend is your enemy, then he is no friend at all."_

"_We both know that you can't kill every dragon in this world by yourself…eventually you will be discovered and brought down."_

_Leon couldn't help but see the truth in the dragon's words. "How do I know I can trust you?"_

_Malefore smiled evilly "Allow me to show you my plan." Malefore closed his eyes and a purple aura surrounded him. The aura grew until Leon to was surrounded by it as well. The aura disappeared almost as soon as it had appeared._

"_Hmm, a partnership." Leon said._

"_Indeed."_

_Leon sighed deeply "This should be interesting."_

_Time fast-forwarded again until it stopped at the same room. "This is ridiculous!" Leon shouted. Spyro saw that he was talking to Gual, the ape king. "What in blazes is Malefore thinking?" Spyro noticed the blanket in Leon's arms._

"_The dark master says that she will be the key to his return, and that you are the perfect person to care for her." Gual explained._

"_Bullshit! He's just doing this to annoy me!"_

"_Perhaps, but regardless he has ordered you to keep her safe and train her."_

"_Malefore doesn't give me orders."_

"_Then what will you do, kill her?"_

_Leon sighed before shifting the blanket around in his arms, revealing the head of a black dragon hatchling. She looked like she had just hatched and was unable to open her eyes yet. "Well…you did go to the trouble of bringing her to me."_

_Gual chuckled "The dark master has also given you the task of naming her."_

"_Hmm." Leon stared at the infant dragoness for a moment. "Why can't he do it?"_

"_He says that it's the father's duty to name his child. So congratulations, 'daddy'."_

"_If you weren't so important to Malefore, I would kill you where you stand." Leon said maliciously. The blanket shifted in his arms, drawing Leon's attention away from the ape. The infant dragoness cracked open her eyes and stared up at Leon. Leon looked back into her emerald eyes "Her name will be Cynder." He said. The small dragon cooed and smiled up at him before settling her head into the crook of his arm and falling asleep._

Spyro's subconscious was pulled back into his body. He immediately looked to his mate, who had tears streaming down her cheeks. "It was true." She cried. "It was all true."

"Cynder…" Spyro began. He tried to drape his wing around her but Cynder shrugged it off.

"No Spyro!" She sobbed. "This changes everything!" She looked at Ignitus, "Can we…can we change him. I mean…Spyro changed me so why can't we do the same for him?"

"Cynder," Ignitus began, "you were corrupted by the dark master, you had no control over your actions…Leon, however, has chosen his actions for revenge. It would be far too difficult to turn him away from such hatred."

Cynder looked at the ground, saddened by the answer. "We need to know where he is." Flare stated.

"Then let's see what we can find." Ignitus stated. The book flipped to the last few pages and the vanguards were minds traveled back into the book.

_Spyro was flying over the burning plains. A massive orc army stood below him listening to Leon as he and the orc general stood near the entrance of a large black fortress. "Followers of Malefore," Leon raised his voice so all the orcs could hear. "too long have these murderous dragons been allowed to continue their evil existence. Too long have they kept you orcs under them as a lesser species. Too long have they gone without suffering punishment for the genocide of my race." The orcs listened intently to Leon's speech. "Now, it is us who will be doing the killing. It is us who will be committing the genocide. It is us who will take this world back from their evil reign." Leon stared intently at the crowd before him and raised his javelin above his head. "Death to the dragons!" The crowd erupted in cheer before Leon turned and entered the fortress with the orc general and several of his soldiers._

Spyro's subconscious returned back to his body. "We'll never make it there in time." Charlotte said.

"Don't be so sure." Ignitus said smiling he turned around and began glowing blue. The vanguards watched in awe as the large hourglass in the middle if the room was lifted to the ceiling, revealing a white portal. The portal flashed once and revealed an image of the black fortress that Spyro had seen.

"Come on," Twitch said, he was convulsing wildly, "let's end this."

Spyro looked at Cynder, who was still staring at the book. "Give me a minute." He said.

"We don't have much time." Flare warned.

"I know…but it'll only take a second."

Flare nodded and Spyro approached Cynder. "You with me?"

Cynder sighed, "I'm with you…but you have to promise me something."

"Anything." Spyro said.

Cynder gazed straight into his eyes. "I want you to try and help my father."

Spyro was shocked that by what she had said, "Cynder, you heard what Ignitus said."

"I heard it would be difficult, not impossible."

"He's probably killed hundreds of dragons, and he almost killed you!"

"I know, but we have to try. He's my father, damn it!" Cynder shot back as she began to cry again.

"He's not even a dragon!"

"And your parents are?"

"At least my parents aren't trying to free Malefore!" Spyro shot back. Cynder pointed her head at the ground and sobbed, immediately making Spyro feel bad about what he had said.

"I'm only trying to save the first person who ever cared about me, who I think still, deep down, cares about me." She said before looking back up at Spyro with pleading eyes. "Why won't you help me?"

Spyro looked into her eyes for a long moment before speaking again. "I promise I will try my best to help your…_father_." Calling Leon that left an odd sensation on Spyro's tongue.

Cynder lightened up and nuzzled Spyro affectionately on the cheek "Thank you."

The two dragons approached the rest of the vanguards "Are you ready?" Charlotte asked.

"Ready." Cynder said.

"Ready," Spyro began. "kill any orcs in the way, but don't attack Leon unless he attacks first."

"Are you insane?" Fang asked. "How do we know that he can't turn us all into dust with one attack?"

"That's an order, Fang!" Spyro said in a commanding voice. Fang glared at Spyro for a moment before backing down. Spyro noticed that the other vanguards all had looks of disapproval. He sighed deeply "Look, I know it may seem like a bad idea but just trust me…I won't let anything happen to you guys." The vanguards looked skeptically at him before nodding. "Okay, let's go." Spyro turned to Ignitus "Thank you for your help." He and the other vanguards bowed.

"Think nothing of it." Ignitus said. "May the ancestors watch over you, young dragons, and of course you as well, Sparx."

"See you later, old timer." Sparx said, issuing a chuckle from Ignitus, "Well, come on guys. We're not going to stop unspeakable terror from being unleashed from here."

"Right" the vanguards said simultaneously before they leaped into the portal.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Almost there." Leon said to himself as he, Gwar, and several orc guards walked across the main chamber of the fortress towards the staircase leading down to the inner sanctum. He had almost reached the first step when one of the orc guards spoke.

"What the hell is _that_?" he said. Leon turned around to see that the orcs were staring at a small white orb that floated behind the group. Leon walked around the orcs and looked inquisitively at the orb. The orb then started to pulsate and then, without warning, it rapidly expanded and the chamber was consumed in a white light causing Leon and the orcs to shield their eyes. When the light died down, Leon dared to open his eyes, which widened as he gazed upon the vanguards struggling to shake off their dizziness.

"No way." Leon whispered to himself.

As the vanguards regained their senses, their eyes fell upon Leon and the orcs and they immediately got into defensive positions.

"Come on, captain. We have to go." Gwar urged.

"Father, wait!" Cynder pleaded. Every orc looked from Leon to Cynder in shear bewilderment.

Leon also had a bewildered look on his face "What did you call me?"

"We know what happened…and this isn't way to handle it."

"Hmph!" Leon scoffed, "Who are _you_ to lecture _me_?"

"Please…don't do this."

An idea popped into Spyro's mind, "Do you think Sierra would be happy with what you've become?"

Leon's eyed the purple dragon before pointing a punishing finger at him, "You better keep her name out of your mouth, dragon."

"What about your mother and father?" Crystal asked, seeing what Spyro was trying to do.

"Silence!" Leon yelled. His temper overflowed as the dragons mentioned his deceased loved ones.

"They said they wanted the best for you. Do you think that this is what they meant?" Spyro said stepping forward.

"Shut up!" Leon shouted. "You don't know anything about them, about me." He drew his shield and javelin.

"Captain, we don't have time for this!" Gwar said.

"I'll take the dragons," Leon said before pulling out the crystal from under his armor. He gave a sharp yank, snapping the small string around his neck, before handing the crystal to Gwar. "Take this and pierce the dark crystal with it."

Gwar took the crystal and examined it, "This will release the dark master?"

"Yes." Leon replied not taking his eyes off the dragons.

"Finally." Gwar said with relief. Leon never saw Gwar remove a small dagger from his hilt. The orc thrust the dagger forward and drove it deep into Leon's sternum. Leon and the vanguards eyes widened, as the orc backed away, leaving the dagger lodged in place.

"What…are…you doing?" Leon gasped dropping to one knee.

"What a foolish creature you are." Gwar sneered, looking at the bleeding human. "Did you really believe that the dark master was just going to let you have free reign over his troops. You were a pawn, not a partner." Leon stared at the ground and grimaced as another wave of pain swept over him. Gwar turned to the other orcs, "Kill them all, I will go tend to the dark master." Gwar glanced at Leon one more time before disappearing down the hallway.

"We have to stop him!" Twitch exclaimed.

"Right, let's kill these guy as fast as we can." Spyro said. A sickening squashing sound drew the dragons' attention.

Leon yanked the dagger from his sternum and examined the bloody blade before throwing it aside and struggling to his feet. "No one…betrays me." He stated. His eyes glowed with convexity and his body began emanating dark lightning. "No one!" he shot a beam of convexity that petrified three orcs in place. The rest of the orcs looked at one another before approaching Leon, weapons drawn. When they were close enough. The first one attacked and Leon raised his shield. The orcs sword glanced off of the crystalline shield and Leon spun around and drove the sharp point of his javelin into the orcs chest, piercing his heart. He flung the body into two other orcs.

Spyro had noticed that the orcs had left the stairway unguarded and all their attention was on Leon. "Come on, let's go." He said looking back at the vanguards.

"But what about-" Cynder began but Spyro cut her off.

"He can take care of himself." He said looking back at Leon, who blew another orc across the chamber with his wind power.

"Come on." Spyro said before he and the vanguards disappeared down towards the inner sanctum. The stairs went down about fifty feet before coming to a stop at a wooden door. Spyro leaped and rammed the door, breaking it off its hinges. The vanguards froze in fear as they looked upon Malefore's new form, still trapped in the dark crystal.

"I remember him being a little smaller." Sparx said looking at the size of the large purple dragon.

"Oh good, you're just in time to witness the beginning of the end." Malefore sneered from behind the dark crystal as he glared at the dragons before him.

"You'll never win as long as I'm alive!" Spyro shouted.

"That's a problem that can easily be solved." Malefore said maliciously before turning to Gwar who stood patiently beside the crystal waiting patiently, the crystal Leon had given him was still in his hand. "Do it."

The orc raised the crystal above his head and brought it down, piercing the dark crystal. "No!" Spyro screamed as a bright light blinded everyone in the room.

As the light faded, a dark shadow caught Spyro's eye. He felt the wind rush out of his lungs as a massive tail struck him and sent him flying into the wall. Spyro landed on his back and a massive paw pinned him to the ground. As Spyro opened his eyes he found Malefore's cold eyes staring back at him, filled with killing intent.

"Stay away from him!" Cynder yelled.

"Don't worry, I'll get to you soon enough, traitor." Malefore said glancing back at her. He fixed his eyes on Spyro and raised his tailblade like a scorpion poised to strike. Just when he was about to attack a gust of wind blew through the door and the upper half of an orc struck Malefore in the head with a sickening splat.

"Like _you _have the right to call someone traitor." Malefore turned to see Leon emerge from the darkness. He was covered in lacerations and the stab wound that Gwar had given him was bleeding quite badly.

"Stay out of this, Leon. You don't want to interfere." Malefore said maliciously.

"You know," Leon began, ignoring the purple dragons warning, "It's not so much you betraying me that pisses me off, but it's the fact that you had your orc bitch to try and kill me while my back is turned…Now _that_ was a low blow."

"I'll be sure to finish the job _after _I deal with this dragon." Malefore stated turning his gaze back to Spyro, who was struggling to get free.

"No, you're going to fight me now." Leon said stepping past the vanguards and taking a defensive stance.

"Father," Cynder began, "there's no way that you can fight him in your condition."

"Father?" Malefore laughed evilly "I knew you didn't have the heart to let your precious Cynder go."

"Don't make me laugh." Leon said. "I'll deal with them after I deal with you."

"Very well." Malefore looked back at Spyro, who was slowly losing consciousness from the lack of oxygen. He swiped his paw sending Spyro barreling into Twitch and Flare.

Cynder ran over to Spyro as Twitch and Flare helped him to his feet. "I'm fine." He assured her.

"Time to die, old friend_." _Malefore said as he faced Leon.

"I'll drag you to hell with me." Leon replied before releasing a beam of convexity. Malefore created a convexity shield around himself. The beam hit the shield and was reflected to the upper left of the room. Blowing a hole clean through the ceiling and up to the outside. "This may be harder than I thought." Leon thought to himself. Malefore fired a blast of dark lightning from his maw. Leon dodged but the blast created a shock wave that threw him into the wall. Malefore stomped on the ground creating a pillar that sent Leon into the air. Leon used his wind power to level himself out and his eyes widened as he saw Malefore charge up a massive beam of convexity. On instinct he raised his shield and placed a barrier of convexity around himself. Malefore fired the beam and it immediately broke through Leon's barrier and disintegrated his shield before sending him through the roof and several rooms of the fortress and finally outside. Leon flew through the air and hit the ground hard. He rolled down the side of the volcanic mountain and felt his leg and several of his ribs break before his world went black. The vanguards stood frightened by what they had just seen.

Malefore turned his attention onto them, "Now, where were we before we were so rudely interrupted?"

"We're not afraid of you!" Twitch said, although, his convulsing body told a different story.

"Hmm, well perhaps I should fix that." Malefore sneered. He leaped at the vanguards and they to scattered in different directions. Twitch fired a bolt of lightning, but was surprised when it was reflected off Malefore's scales.

"Oh shit!" Twitch said as he dodged his own bolt of lightning. Malefore swung his tailblade at Cynder, intending to cut her in half. Cynder dodged and spat a ball of venom, which splattered against Malefore's hide but didn't burn him. Zephyr fired an earth bullet while Flare and Charlotte shot fireballs at the large purple dragon. The earth bullet crumbled against Malefore's scales while the fireballs were reflected back at Flare and Charlotte. They tried to dodge but Malefore shot dark lightning at the two flaming orbs, causing them to detonate and throw the two fire dragons across the chamber. Spyro leaped at Malefore, and ran his talons across Malefore's face. Malefore roared in anger before swinging his paw at Spyro, catching the purple dragon and pinning him to the wall. Spyro looked at Malefore's face and gasped as the deep lacerations Spyro had given him began to close up and disappear as if Spyro had never touched him. Malefore pressed hard and Spyro could feel his ribs break one by one as he struggled for air. Malefore took his other paw and began digging one of his massive talons into Spyro's stomach. Spyro tried to scream, but he couldn't fill his lungs with enough air. He started to black out from the pain and lack of oxygen.

"Get away from him!" Cynder screamed. She leaped at Malefore and began viciously stabbing him in the leg over and over again with her tailblade. Malefore roared and released his hold on Spyro, who slid down the wall to the floor and did not move. Malefore tried stomping Cynder with his hind leg, but she rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding becoming a bloody stain on the floor.

"We have to get out of here!" Zephyr yelled to the other vanguards.

"T-t-there" Sting pointed with his tail to a pillar that held the section of roof above Malefore.

"Okay," Crystal began. "Fang, you get Spyro, Charlotte, get Cynder out of the way, and Twitch and Zephyr, destroy the pillar, everyone else, get ready to run."

"Right!" the vanguards chimed in unison. Fang ran by the combating dragons and hefted Spyro onto his back; once he was sure that Spyro was steady enough he took off through the hole that was blown through the fort when Leon was ejected out of the building. He passed through several rooms before he finally made it outside where he hovered in place and waited for the other vanguards. Charlotte dashed at Cynder.

"Now!" Crystal yelled. Zephyr fired a large earth missile and Twitch fired a bolt of lightning. The two attacks hit the pillar and it exploded just as Charlotte tackled Cynder out of the way. The explosion caused small sharp rocks to pepper Charlotte's hindquarters. Malefore looked up just in time to see the roof come down on top of him. Gwar panicked and ran through the doorway and up towards the entrance. The fortress began to crumble around the vanguards; they flapped hard and shot through the hole. Fang had to dodge left to avoid getting rammed by Crystal.

"Sorry." She apologized after she was able to stop herself. The vanguards headed east to avoid being shot at by the orc army. After they were sure they were far enough away they stopped and hovered for a bit to catch their breath. They were covered in cuts and bruises but none were as bad as the gaping hole Malefore had left in Spyro's sternum.

"Zephyr, can you fix this?" Cynder asked frantically.

"I can seal the wound after we land somewhere, but we need to get him back to Warfang before he bleeds out internally." Zephyr stated.

"Then let's hurry." Flare said. The vanguards headed for the woods, they would have to go around the orc army, which also lengthened their trip by a day.

After Gwar was sure that the building was not going to fall on him he gathered a few orcs and descended back into what was left of the inner sanctum. "Damn." He thought to himself, "What do we do now?"

Just then, a massive gust of wind erupted from underneath the rubble blowing up rocks and dust; one of the orcs was crushed under a large piece of the ceiling. As the dust settled Malefore glared at Gwar, making the orc freeze in fear. "Where the hell were _you?" _Malefore asked in a malicious tone.

"M-m-master I-I-I was a-about to jump in b-but-" Gwar stammered.

"Never mind, we have much work to do." Malefore said stepping past the orcs and out of the ruined fort. "Come, we must prepare the troops, I want to give the guardians a taste of what's to come."

The vanguards continued flying towards the woods. "We'll set down a little further ahead." Cynder called over her shoulder.

"Hey, look over there." Flare said. A black figure was hobbling towards the tree line to their right. The vanguards flew lower and then stopped and hovered. Leon limped to the trees; he had strapped the leather from his broken shield around his leg as a makeshift splint and he was using his javelin as a walking stick. Cynder only stared at him, but Leon could feel her eyes on the back of his head. He stopped and turned around to look at the vanguards and his eyes locked with Cynder's. They stared at each other for a moment; her eyes were filled with sadness while his was filled with hatred. He turned away and walked as fast as his broken body could go. When he finally reached the trees, he disappeared into shadow.

"Should we go after him?" Zephyr asked.

Cynder found herself torn between the desire to help her father, and the safety of her mate. Her conflict was quickly resolved when Spyro coughed hard; expelling a large amount of blood onto Fang's shoulder. "No. We have to get Spyro to Warfang as quickly as possible. The vanguards nodded and continued on their path to Warfang. They flew for another hour before setting down in a clearing. Cynder walked over to Fang and helped him set Spyro gently onto the ground. Zephyr walked over to Spyro and placed her paw on his bleeding wound. Her scales glowed green and began healing him as much as she could. Fang turned to Cynder.

"This is all the human's fault." He stated.

"He didn't do this to Spyro." Cynder said.

"Why are you still defending him?" Fang asked stomping his paw on the ground, surprising Cynder with his sudden hostility, "He may have just doomed us all!"

"F-Fang!" Sting had walked up silently behind his twin, "I-it wasn't h-his fault."

"You too, Sting?" Fang asked.

"Think a-about it, i-if someone had k-killed me, what w-would you d-do?"

Fang stared at his brother for a minute, before sighing defeated, "I'd hunt down the son-of-a-bitch that killed you."

"I t-thought s-so. N-now go check on C-Charlotte." Fang nodded and headed toward the fire dragoness and her brother.

"Thank you." Cynder said turning to Sting.

"M-my brother means w-well, but sometimes h-he c-can let his t-temper take over. Our f-father is t-the same w-way."

"I'm not angry with him." Cynder assured him.

"G-good." Sting said before turning and walking back to the rest of the group.

"Hold still!" Flare said trying to pick the sharp rocks out of his sister's hindquarters with his paws. It was an embarrassing situation for the both of them, which was made only worse when Fang approached them.

"Something wrong?" He asked.

"My sister just got a few rocks lodged in her rear end." Flare replied. Charlotte Squeaked as he plucked out the last rock. "There, all done."

"Does it look bad?" Charlotte asked.

Flare and fang examined the tiny wounds. "It's perfect." Fang said without thinking.

Charlotte blushed deeply and Flare burst out laughing. "Nice one, buddy." He laughed. Fang had not meant it to sound like that, but he did not mind them taking it that way.

"That's as much as I can do." Zephyr said looking sadly at Cynder. "He needs a more experienced doctor…and fast."

"Okay, thank you." She said before turning to the rest of the vanguards, "Rest up. We're going to keep going in a couple of hours." The vanguards settled down with their respective mates. Cynder draped her wing carefully around Spyro, who shuddered under her touch.

"N-need some c-company?" Cynder looked up to see Sting staring down at her. She nodded and Sting lay on the other side of Spyro and draped his wing over the both of them. "He'll be fine." He said before noticing the Cynder understood whom he was talking about and smiled. She appreciated having so many friends nearby. She rested her head in her paws and took a nap.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The vanguards had traveled for two days before finally reaching Warfang. They had only stopped to rest for a few short hours and for Zephyr to heal Spyro as much as she could. Cynder's mind was split; half of it was worried about her mate, while the other half was concerned about Leon. "I hope he's safe." She thought to herself. His wounds were fatal if left untreated, but Cynder knew that he was resourceful. As the dragons landed in the courtyard the council, several mole soldiers, Hunter, and a few cheetah warriors ran to greet them.

"What happened?" Cyril asked when he saw the still unconscious Spyro on Fang's back.

"Malefore happened." Flare replied.

"Damn it!" Terrador cursed before turned to one of the cheetah warriors, "Take Spyro to the healers, quickly."

"Yes master Terrador." The cheetah said before walking over to Fang and carefully taking him to the healer's den, not too far away

"We saw the convexity beam from the cheetah village." Hunter began. "We thought the worst so we all came here for shelter."

"And it would seem that the worst_ has_ happened." Nitro said.

"We'll have to prepare for battle." Vulcan stated.

"There's more." Flare said drawing the council's attention, "Malefore seems to be…invincible."

"What do you mean 'invincible'?" Boltor asked skeptically.

"Any breath attack we used was either useless or was reflected back at us," Crystal began "and any physical damage was healed almost instantly."

"Hmm, that _is_ problematic." Vulcan observed, "Volteer, do you know any thing about this?"

"Hmm, Malefore must be deriving his power from some outside force, and this outside force must also make him invulnerable to our breath attacks. How he's exactly receiving his powers is beyond even me." Volteer stated.

"So, you _don't _know everything." Cyril mocked.

"Shut up, Cyril, we don't have time for this." Terrador snapped.

"What of Malefore's partner…the human?" Gaia asked.

"Him and Malefore aren't on good terms right now." Twitch stated. He then described Malefore's betrayal and how he shot Leon through the fort with a beam of convexity.

"Good riddance." Anima growled.

Cynder restrained herself from yelling at him, and then she realized that they did not know of Leon's full situation. "He's not dead." She began. "There's also more to his story than you know."

"Explain." Nitro said.

Cynder told them of everything that she had seen in the book, including how she had received her name. When she had finished, the council stood gaping at her.

"The humans must have started it." Anima concluded. "We would never wipe out an entire city, let alone an entire race from existence." Cynder couldn't help but see the similarities between Fang and his father.

"Cynder?" Gaia asked. Cynder looked at the earth dragoness, who wore a worried expression on her face, "You don't feel that…that the human is…" Gaia struggled with her words but Cynder knew what she was trying to say.

"I do." She said shamelessly, "He was the first person I saw when my eyes first opened, he trained me and cared for me. I can't ignore that…no matter how much he might hate my kind."

The other council members seemed to realize the situation. "You must be joking." Anima said disgusted.

"I'm not." Cynder said, content with her decision.

"I suppose that family is what you make of it." Vulcan said reassuringly.

"Normally, I'd agree with you," Nitro stated, "but this is a stretch."

"It's an abomination!" Anima exclaimed, "How do we know we can trust her as a captain when part of her heart belongs to the creature whose spent over two thousand years hunting us!"

"D-dad," Sting began, "C-Cynder's an e-excellent c-captain, and n-nothing will c-change that."

"How can you be so sure." Anima eyed his son inquisitively.

"B-because time and t-time again, she h-has thrown herself i-in front of d-danger f-for our w-wellbeing."

"He's right," Charlotte began, "and I wouldn't want to serve under anyone else." The other vanguards nodded in agreement.

Anima was about to open his mouth to speak again but Terrador cut him off. "We can deal with Leon later," He began, "but for now, we need to find out how Malefore has gained such power."

"Actually, one problem may solve the other." Gaia said.

"What did you have in mind?" Boltor asked inquisitively.

"Maybe Leon's hatred for Malefore will overpower his hatred for dragons as a whole."

"I'm not sure I entirely like where you're going with this." Nitro stated.

"If we can find him, and bring him here then he might tell us how to stop Malefore."

"Have you lost your mind?" Anima exclaimed. "You want to bring him _here_? The person who murders dragon for a living and you want to bring him to the dragon capital?"

"I don't like it either," Terrador began, "but we need answers, and fast."

"Do you have any idea where he might go?" Vulcan asked.

Cynder thought for a moment. "I think the cave at Moonlight Falls is a safe bet." She said.

"Go then," Cyril said, "we have to prepare our defenses."

"I'm going with you." Sparx said. "Spyro would want me too." Cynder nodded before turning to the rest of the vanguards.

"Let's hurry." She said.

The vanguards nodded; they had hoped to rest for a bit, but they knew time was of the essence. They bowed to the council before taking off towards the falls.

Anima watched them go before turning around and heading down the street.

"Where are you going?" Boltor asked.

"Oh, I thought I would fluff up the pillows and find some dragon brandy for our guest when he arrives." Anima said in a very sarcastic tone before turning and sinking into the shadows of the buildings.

As the vanguards flew over the forest following Moonlight River towards the falls, Cynder couldn't help but worry about Spyro. They had decided to fly through the night should Leon arrive at the cave and then leave before they could catch up with him.

Leon stumbled through the woods, his injuries had slowed him down quite a bit. His stab wound was, by far, the injury that slowed him down the most. He had been able to stop the bleeding with plants such as Dragon's Tongue and Tiger Lilies that he found along the way, but it wasn't long before he did something that would reopen the wound. He had passed out several times from blood loss, but every time he did a voice spoke to him in his head, "Not yet." It would say in a warped voice and Leon would awaken several hours later. He wondered who, or what, the mysterious voice might be but he had no time to ponder it. His energy was draining fast and he knew that his safest bet was to go back to Moonlight Falls and hope that his medical supplies were still there, along with a few personal items.

He carefully crept through the brush, being mindful of his broken leg. He sighed with relief once he finally saw the entrance of the cave, it was devoid of the orcs, but Leon knew that that was a bittersweet victory, as they probably ransacked the cave before they left. He entered the cave and slowly made his way down the hallway. When he finally reached his room he was dismayed to find that his room had not been spared from the orcs sticky fingers. As Leon approached his worktable he noticed that they took all of his notes, leaving the walls and table barren. The chest where he had kept his medical supplies was empty and all of his scientific concoctions were gone.

"Damn it all!" he cursed bringing his fist down hard on the table, cracking it in half. The movement caused the stab wound to reopen once again and Leon dropped to his knees in pain. "Why was I stupid enough to trust a dragon!" He screamed into the air. He retracted his javelin and clipped it back to his belt before sliding up into a corner of the room and resting his back against the wall. There was one last thing he wanted; he looked to his right and began fiddling with a loose stone. "Please, tell me it's still here." He whispered in his mind before removing the stone and revealing a small hole in the wall. He reached inside and removed his father's red tattered cape, a small scroll, and a gold ring with a dark crystal set in the center. He sighed with relief and placed the items in his damaged satchel and strapped it to his back. He knew he could no longer go anywhere, but knowing that these items were safely in his possession put him at peace.

"It's still not your time yet." The mysterious voice stated again.

"Who are you?" Leon asked.

"In due time, Leon, in due time." The voice replied evilly before fading away.

"There it is." Cynder said to the vanguards when they finally reached the cave. They landed at the entrance and Cynder turned to the other dragons. "We'll split up and check the each room. Keep quiet, we don't want to scare him off."

"He doesn't seem like the type who would run away from a fight." Twitch said, convulsing slightly.

The vanguards entered the cave and began silently checking the rooms, being extremely careful should they be ambushed. It was only about fifteen minutes before Crystal shouted, "Over here!" the vanguards rushed down the hall and approached the room that Leon had held Cynder in. They carefully crept into the room and their eyes immediately fell upon Leon who sat against the wall in a puddle of his own blood, his eyes were closed and his skin was paler than usual.

"Is he…Is he dead?" Zephyr asked.

Twitch was about to answer but an ice-cold voice cut him off.

"Unfortunately, no, not yet." Leon opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on the dragons, his normally bright purple eyes were dull and almost lifeless. "Here to finish it?"

"No, father, we're here to help you." Cynder replied.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Leon asked inquisitively.

"Because you raised me from a hatchling, taught me how to fly, and cared for me…that makes you my only family besides Spyro."

"I did that because I thought that you would be a valuable ally to help me kill the dragons," Leon coughed and expelled blood out of his mouth. He wiped his face on the back of his sleeve before continuing, "and instead you join the purple one and undo everything that I had accomplished. You are not my daughter, and you never were, as far as I'm concerned you're no different than the dragons that killed my family," he pointed a punishing finger at the other dragons "and that goes for every dragon that lives on this planet." He winced and closed his eyes as his stab wound sent another wave of pain up his side. He opened his eyes and glared at the vanguards. "You took…_everything_ from me." He closed his eyes again and fought back tears as he remembered his family. Cynder was hurt deeply by his words.

"Wow," Sparx began, "this guy can really hold a grudge."

"Sparx!" Cynder glared at him angrily.

"He's right though," Flare began, "you can't blame us for something that the dragons did over two-thousand years ago."

Leon fixed his gaze on the fire dragon. "The sins of the father…pass to his sons. Every one of you is a descendent of one of the dragons who killed my people." Another shot of pain made Leon cringe again.

"Zephyr, can you get him stable enough for the trip back to Warfang?" Cynder asked.

"I can try." She said taking a step forward.

"Don't touch me." Leon said defensively.

"You're going to bleed out if we don't do something." Zephyr told him.

"Good, I'd rather die than be helped by a dragon, let alone be taken to Warfang."

"Look pal," Twitch began, "we don't like each other...that much is obvious, but we need your help."

"And what…makes you…think that-" the blood loss had finally gotten to Leon, his head slumped forward as he fell unconscious.

Zephyr carefully approached and put her tailspade to his neck. He had a pulse but it was very weak. She carefully removed his hand and examined his wound; it was infected and had yellow puss dripping down his armor. The sight made the vanguards sick and Zephyr had to hold back her urge to vomit as she placed her paw on the rancid wound and healed it over. "We have to go, now." She urged.

"Okay." Cynder said. She went over and carefully grabbed Leon's collar in her maw and began dragging the heavy body.

"Here, let me help." Flare said before gently taking Leon's shoulder in his mouth and helping Cynder drag him out of the room. When they were outside, Cynder and Flare each grabbed a shoulder and hefted him into the air and headed the vanguards headed to back to Warfang.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

When night fell on the forest, the vanguards decided to camp for the night. It was the first real rest they had gotten in days. Cynder and Flare gently set Leon onto his back and Zephyr studied his condition. His breathing had become labored and he was covered in dried blood.

"It's a wonder he's lasted this long." Zephyr told Cynder. "The sooner we get to Warfang the better."

"Thank you." Cynder said.

She lay beside Sting, but kept glancing at Leon, until her eyes drooped and she fell asleep. It wasn't long before the other vanguards went to sleep, but one of them stayed awake…waiting until he was sure that the other vanguards were asleep.

Fang rose from beside Charlotte, being careful not to wake her. She groaned but her eyes stayed close. Fang nuzzled her cheek and whispered, "I won't let anyone hurt you." He then approached the spot where Leon lay. He glared disgustingly at the unconscious Leon, "How many dragons have been slaughtered because of you?" He asked as if expecting an answer. "And now _we_ have to help you because you might be the only one who can clean up this mess…" He then glanced at Cynder, still asleep under his brother's wing, "and because she truly believes you are her father, and you won't even acknowledge it." Fang raised his tailblade and brought it to Leon's throat and held it there, contemplating his next move.

"Fang?" the black dragon whipped around to see Charlotte staring at him with inquisitive eyes, "What are you-" She stopped when she saw Fang's tailblade at Leon's throat.

"I can't do it…" He began, "I can't let him live. This may be my only chance to…to"

"To what? Get revenge?"

"No, to protect you from him." Fang looked at the ground shamefully.

"Hey," Charlotte brought his eyes to meet hers with her tailspike, "I know I can count on you to protect me…but this isn't the way."

Fang sighed "I know." he said before taking his tailblade away from the bleeding human.

Without warning Charlotte pulled him into a hug. "I love you." She said. Fang was surprised that she had said that, but deep down it wasn't unexpected.

"I love you, too." He said hugging her back. They looked at each other's eyes before passionately kissing one another.

Charlotte broke away. "Come on, let's go back to bed." She said turning back toward their bedding spot.

Fang gave Leon one last glance and whispered, "I would say you're lucky…but you're not, are you?"

"What was that?" Charlotte asked looking back at him.

"Uh, n-nothing." He stammered before getting up and following her back to their spot.

The next day, the vanguards had finally made it to Warfang, the city was bustling with moles, cheetahs and dragons preparing for the coming war. They landed near the healer's den and a yellow lightning dragoness that was getting ready to enter her prime years greeted them and bowed, "I am Elektra, the healer."

"He needs help." Cynder said indicating to Leon whom lay on the ground behind them.

"Is this the human that the council has told me about?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"The council has made a particular bed for him." she said before walking over and gently setting the human onto her back. "Come." She said leading the vanguards into the pavilion. They went down one corridor, took a left and then entered a room on the right. Cynder saw Spyro lying on the bed, still unconscious, but his wounds seemed to healing well.

"How's Spyro?" Cynder asked.

"Ah, you must be his mate." Elektra concluded. "His wounds were pretty bad, but I believe he'll make a full recovery." She stopped at the bed next to Spyro, two cheetah warriors waited patiently by the bed, which had two long chains coming out of the walls on either side. "I know that you would like to stay with your mate," Elektra began. "but I must remove this human's armor…and I don't think you all want to stay for that."

"Nope, I'm good." Twitch said before heading towards the exit.

"Yeah, me too." Flare stated.

"I'm actually a little curious to know-" Charlotte began but Flare cut her off.

"No, you're not." He said before wrapping his tail around her neck and dragging her to the exit. Cynder looked back up at the Elektra.

"How about I call you when we've got him covered up?" She said in a reassuring tone. Cynder nodded and smiled before bounding to the exit, where the other vanguards were waiting. Elektra examined Leon before turning to the two cheetahs "So, I suppose you two wouldn't know how to get this armor off."

"So, what now?" Crystal asked.

"We should probably let the council know that he's here." Flare stated.

"Your right." Cynder said.

"How about we do that while you wait here?" Zephyr suggested.

"Are you sure?"

"We're just gonna tell the council that we brought him to the city, how hard can that be?" Charlotte asked.

"Thanks, guys." Cynder said.

"No, problem." Flare began "Just stay here until we get back."

It was about a half hour before Elektra reemerged from the pavilion "Well, after much unbuckling and in zipping, we finally got it off. You may see your mate now if you wish." she told her.

"Nothing would make me happier, right now." she said smiling.

Elektra led her back into the room. Cynder glanced at Leon's bed; his wrists were locked into the shackles and the two cheetah warriors stood guard in case he should wake up and try to escape. She also noticed the collection of scars he had received from, Cynder concluded, a life of hunting dragons.

Cynder hopped onto Spyro's bed and laid next to her mate, the sound of his relaxed breathing calmed her. "Thank the ancestors." she said. It was then that the council and the rest of the vanguards entered the room.

Cynder was about to get up but Gaia stopped her. "No need for you leave your mate for us." she assured her.

"So," Nitro began, approaching Leon's bed, "this is the one who has caused us all this grief."

"Indeed," Terrador replied before turning to Elektra, "will he make it?"

"I'm not sure yet. He'll need some surgery to fix his internal bleeding and some antibiotics to fight the infection, if he does survive it'll probably take a week for him to wake up, and another two weeks for him to recover."

"It's not worth it," Anima began, "we should just kill him now before he wakes up."

Cynder was about to go off on the council member but Elektra beat her to it,

"How can you be so barbaric?"

"You can't talk to me like that!"

"But she's right, Anima," Vulcan began, "besides, we need him."

Just then, a groaning noise caught everyone's attention. Spyro stirred beside

his mate and blinked his eyes a few times, He saw Cynder beside him and smiled

at her "Hey, beautiful." he said.

"Hey." she said smiling back.

Spyro lifted his head and looked at everyone in the room. His eyes widened when he saw Leon and he jumped up unexpectedly causing Cynder to fall off the bed. A sharp pain stabbed at Spyro's insides and he fell back onto the bed.

"Spyro, it's alright. We're safe." she assured him picking herself up off the floor. It was then that Spyro noticed the chains around Leon's arms and he relaxed.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Cynder said climbing back onto the bed and nuzzling him affectionately.

"Why is he here?" Spyro asked looking at Leon.

"We've decided to bring him here to see if he will…cooperate with us against Malefore." Terrador stated.

"What do you mean _'we'_?" Anima said sarcastically.

"How much do they know?" Spyro asked turning to Cynder.

"Everything." She replied.

"Then you should know the risk for bringing him here." Spyro said looking back at the council.

"Look at him, Spyro." Cynder argued, "He's not going anywhere."

"Those chains won't hold him, Cynder. You know that."

"His injuries are far too severe for him to do anything, anytime soon." Elektra assured him.

"We'll increase security as he recovers." Cyril said.

"That may still not be enough." Spyro thought to himself. He turned to Elektra, "What about me?"

"You may leave if you wish," She began, "but you need to take it easy for the next couple of days."

"Good." He said before he got to slowly his feet with Cynder's help. "Thank you." He said bowing to Elektra.

"Think nothing of it." She said watching him and Cynder leave.

"We'll leave you to tend to our guest." Terrador stated.

"I'll do the surgery once the moles get here with my supplies."

The council nodded and headed to the exit. Anima gave one last disgusted glance at Leon before he disappeared down the hall.

Spyro and Cynder made their way to the dining hall for dinner. The rest of the vanguards had already finished their meals and were preparing to leave when they saw Spyro and Cynder enter the large hall. They quickly rose from their tables and greeted them.

"How are you doing?" Crystal asked.

"Never better." Spyro replied smiling.

"Great," Flare said, "you had us worried for a moment."

"Where's Sparx?" Spyro asked noticing that his brother was not with them.

"Over there." Flare indicated with his head to Sparx who was finishing a conversation with one of the mole chefs. The mole walked off and Sparx turned around. When he saw Spyro, he immediately zipped over and hugged his brother's muzzle.

"It's about time you woke up." He said tapping Spyro on the back of the head.

"What were you talking to the mole about?" Spyro asked.

"Oh, I was just telling him about the time I saved the manweersmalls from the apes…and, of course, I mentioned how you helped."

Spyro rolled his eyes, "I think I remember that story a little differently."

"Well, your memory may be a little fuzzy after the beating you took."

"Whatever you say." Spyro said, shaking his head.

"So what are you two doing?" Crystal asked.

"We thought we'd get something to eat before heading to bed." Cynder replied.

"Ah, a romantic dinner for two." Twitch said jokingly.

Spyro and Cynder blushed slightly, but that did sound like a good idea. Zephyr gave Twitch a love tap upside the head. "Come on. Let's leave these two alone." She said before her and Twitch headed to their room.

"I guess we'll go too." Crystal stated before wrapping her tail around Flare's neck and dragging him behind her.

"Have fun you two." Fang said before turning to Charlotte, "You want to…sleep in my room?"

Charlotte looked at Sting, who said "I-I got m-my own room."

"Then I suppose I do." Charlotte said looking back at Fang.

The three dragons disappeared down the hall, leaving Spyro and Cynder to find a table among the other dragons. As they walked, they noticed that most of them had donned heavy armor. "How could this happen again?" Spyro thought to himself.

"Excuse me," Spyro looked up to see a green middle-aged earth dragon staring down at Spyro from one of the tables. "are you the captains of the vanguards, Spyro and Cynder?"

"We are." Cynder replied.

"Ah, I am Cypress, the new captain of the city guard." He rose from his seat and bowed to the dragons.

"Please, dine with us." He said.

"So much for our romantic dinner." Cynder thought to her self as she hopped up with Spyro onto the wooden bench around the table. "This is Cryos," he indicated to the blue ice dragon, "Shock," The yellow lightning dragon, "and Infernus." The red fire dragon. The dragons nodded their heads in acknowledgment. Just then, a few moles dropped off two dishes of meat and berries, along with some fresh juice, in front of Spyro and Cynder.

"You two must be hungry." Shock said.

The two dragons began eating the food, allowing I to sate their ravenous hunger. It wasn't long before the meat was reduced to bones and the fruit and juice disappeared into the dragons' stomachs.

"Captain Spyro," Infernus said gaining Spyro's attention, "We were told that you have brought the human here, to Warfang." Cynder and Spyro wondered how he had gathered such information.

"News travels fast around here." Cryos said noticing their befuddled looks.

Spyro looked at Cynder, who nodded at his silent question. "Yes, we have." Spyro told them.

The guards were quiet for a moment before Cypress spoke, "Well, I can't say I like it, but it's the council's call."

"I'll tell you what I strongly disagree with," Infernus began, "we should have dragons guarding him, not cheetahs."

"I agree," Cryos said, "but, again, it's the council's decision."

"We…also know of you're…relationship to him." Shock said looking at Cynder.

"Shock!" Cypress scolded.

"It's alright, captain. I don't hide it." Cynder said passively. "I believe that in the end…things will work out for me, Spyro, and even him."

"What makes you so sure?" Infernus asked skeptically.

Cynder thought for a long moment before a single word popped into her mind. She turned to the fire-breather and said, "Love."

This made the guards, along with Spyro, even more skeptical, but they said nothing. After a few more minutes, Cynder and Spyro left the guards in the dining hall and headed for their bedchamber. The other vanguards were already asleep, and the couple walked softly to prevent their claws from clacking on the stone floor. When they had finally reached their room, Cynder plopped down on the pillows, exhausted from carrying Leon to Warfang.

"I guess you had a rough day." Spyro observed.

"You have no idea." Cynder replied drowsily.

Spyro laid down and cuddled up with his mate. "Thing will get better. You'll see" He said before the two fell into a deep sleep.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Back at the medical pavilion a mole soldier entered the room where Leon was being held. "It's about time." Elektra said when she saw the medical supplies the mole was carrying.

"Sorry, milady." the mole apologized bowing. "We had trouble finding the Rhododendron leaves you asked for."

"Did you get everything?"

"I believe so."

"Good, put it here."

The mole set the supplies onto the table beside Leon's bed before saluting the dragoness and leaving the pavilion. Elektra began mixing several of the herbs together. She turned to the cheetah warriors that guarded the bed. "Shouldn't the nightshift be here by now?" She asked.

"They were _supposed _to be." One of the warriors stated before yawning.

"You two go home." Elektra said.

"Are you sure, ma'am?" the other cheetah asked worriedly.

"Of course, go be with your families. I can take care of things here."

"Thank you." They said, before graciously bowing and exiting the room. Elektra watched them go before continuing with her preparation.

_Leon was being led up a through the trees by Sierra, "Where are we going?" he asked._

"_You'll see." She replied playfully. They emerged from the tree line, and Leon found himself looking over the edge of a cliff, with a perfect view of the sunset over Lassarios Lake._

"_Wow…" Leon said, gaping over the fabulous view._

"_It's beautiful, isn't it?" Sierra asked grabbing his hand._

_Leon turned to her and stared at her for a moment, "Yeah, it is." Sierra turned to see he was staring at her, and blushed. "So, I've been thinking…" Leon began._

"_Oh dear." Sierra said jokingly._

_Leon chuckled before continuing, "I wanted to…to wait for the perfect moment."_

"_For what?" Sierra asked, skeptically._

"_For this," Leon took Sierra's hand and knelt down on one knee, "Sierra, I love you…and I'll never let anyone hurt you." He reached one hand into a small pouch around his waist and pulled out a gold ring, with a dark crystal set in the center. "I made this myself…and I was hoping that…you would let me take your hand in marriage."_

_Sierra gazed into his eyes for a long time, "Yes, I would love too." She said, a few tears of joy dripped from her eyes. Leon carefully slipped the ring onto her finger before standing up and holding her close. She kept staring into his eyes before kissing him passionately. _

_Leon had never been as happy as he was when Sierra was by his side, but an evil laugh broke the moment. "I'll never let anyone hurt you." The familiar warped voice repeated Leon's words, "So, much for that." Leon broke away from the kiss, and his eyes widened as he now stared at Sierra's burnt corpse._

"_No!" He screamed and closed his eyes as tears began blurring his vision. When he opened his eyes he found himself alone and surrounded by darkness._

"_Rest in peace, Sierra." The warped voice said._

"_What's going on?" Leon asked._

"_Right now…I think you have bigger things to worry about."_

"There, all done." Elektra said after completing her mixture. She filled a small syringe with the blue mixture she had made, before approaching Leon's bed and removing his arm from under the sheet. She was about to insert the needle when Leon's eyes opened and glared at her. Elektra squeaked in surprise when Leon's arm snapped up and grasped her wrist preventing her from injecting him with the syringe. She struggled against his grasp, but to no avail. Leon was expecting her to scream, claw at him, or zap him with lightning, but instead, much to Leon's surprise, she gently rested her paw on his hand, "It's okay," She said, "you're at Warfang."

Leon raised a skeptical brow at her, before he noticed that his arms were shackled to the wall. "I'm being held prisoner at the dragon capital." He stated, "I believe this is as far from 'okay' as I can get."

"You could be dead." Elektra argued.

"I wish I was."

"You shouldn't wish such things upon yourself." Elektra scolded. When Leon didn't respond, she continued, "You've been through some horrible events…Prince Leon." Leon's eyes jumped in surprise. "We all know of what has happened in your past, but we can't change that." Leon continued to stare hard at Elektra. "Also, I can't help you if you break my wrist." Leon looked at the wrist he had been holding, he didn't realize how hard he had been squeezing her and her wrist was beginning to bruise. He let go, and Elektra rubbed the bruised appendage. She then raised the needle, "This is-"

"One part Rhododendron sap, two parts wormwood sap, and two parts monkshood pollen." Leon finished her sentence for her. "An anesthetic to numb the body." He looked over at the table and noticed several surgical tools, before lifting the blanket and examining his stab wound which was black and blue from the internal bleeding. "You wish to cut open the wound and fix the internal bleeding." He concluded.

Elektra stood gaping at him, "W-well, your permission would be helpful."

Leon thought for a moment, sighed, and held out his arm. "Only because I want to know why you dragons are keeping me alive." He stated.

"You think that maybe we just do it out of the goodness of our hearts?"

"If I was a dragon, yes."

"We care about all creatures." Elektra stated

"If that's so, then can you tell me why you killed every last one of my kind, the ones who truly cared for me?" Leon asked without looking at her. Elektra could not come up with an answer. "I didn't think so."

Without another word Elektra reached out, grabbed Leon's arm and injected the liquid into his bloodstream. Leon waited for his body to numb up. While he waited, he contemplated his chances of escape, he noticed his armor, dagger, javelin, satchel, and belt with throwing knives lying on a table in the corner of the room. He tested the chains, he couldn't break them by hand but that didn't mean there weren't other means of freeing himself. He could kill the dragoness easily and escape, but he didn't know the city at all, and getting lost with fresh dragon blood on his hands could be deadly if one of the guards saw him. He could use his shadow power to escape; that would be the easiest way of getting a safe distance away from the city. While he was contemplating his escape, the warped voice in his head spoke again _"I thought you wanted to know why the dragons are keeping you alive."_

Leon sighed, "I do." He said in his mind.

The night watch had finally arrived, and the two cheetahs tightened their grip on their weapons when they noticed that Leon was awake. "Calm down." She told them.

"We should tell the council." One cheetah said.

"I don't want him bothered until he makes a full recovery." She stated.

"It's our duty to tell the council of his condition." The other cheetah said.

"It was also your duty to arrive here, _on time. _Perhaps, I should tell the council how well you do your _duty."_

The two cheetahs sighed and nodded reluctantly before taking their positions by Leon's bed. They glared at Leon, but he ignored them. Elektra came up beside the bed. She poked Leon's wound, "Can you feel that?" Leon shook his head. Elektra took deep breath, "Okay, let's do this." She grabbed the scalpel from the table and began cutting into Leon's flesh. The anesthetic worked well; Leon could not feel a thing. The cheetahs watched with extreme interest. "So," Elektra attempted to make small talk, "you know a lot about herbs. Are you a professional healer?"

Leon stared at her for a moment before answering. "Alchemist." He stated.

"Ah, similar studies without the _'above all else, do no harm' _clause."

"Precisely."

After a few more minutes of cutting, Elektra used her talons to carefully look inside the wound "Uh oh." Leon lifted his head to look at her. "Your anatomy is different from the dragons."

"We're more like apes." Leon stated, he was going to put a sarcastic "Obviously"

before his statement, but decided against it.

"Oh good, I think I have an ape anatomy scroll somewhere around here." Elektra spent the next few minutes searching through the various scrolls and Leon hoped that the anesthesia didn't wear off or that he bled out on the table before she found the scroll. "Found it!" she pulled out an old scroll and unrolled it on the table beside Leon. Her eyes flashed between the wound and the scroll as she read about primate anatomy. She reached into the wound and began glowing with yellow energy. She healed the slashed organs and cracked ribs. When she was satisfied with her work she retracted her paw and healed the wound back over. "Now for the leg." She began too lift up the sheet from around his leg.

"Make sure it's just my leg your uncovering." Leon warned, nervous that the dragon might accidentally reveal his manhood.

"Too late to be embarrassed now," Elektra said looking at him, "did you think that I removed your armor with my eyes closed?" Leon became extremely red faced with embarrassment. Making Elektra laugh, "Don't worry, I'm sure it's a good size for your kind."

"Whoa, whoa," Leon said his face getting redder by the minute, "just stop talking."

Electra giggled again before healing his broken leg, and covering it back up. "I've got to change your bedding now." She turned to the cheetahs, "Unshackle him."

"But…but" the cheetah stammered.

"We can't have him sleep in his own blood."

"Don't bother." Leon said. Elektra turned to him. "Look, I…appreciate…what you've done." The words left a bad taste in Leon's mouth, "The fact is that I will still hunt down you dragons till the end. So, if I were you…I wouldn't waste extra linens on me."

Elektra gaped at what she just heard "I just thought…that maybe I changed you." she said sadly.

"Like you said…you can't change the past." Leon said coldly.

"Still, it can't be comfortable sleeping in those bloody sheets."

"I don't sleep much anyway."

"Is this about your-"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Elektra stared hard at him for a moment before sighing, "Then I suppose I'll check on you in the morning." She said before heading towards the exit. She turned around and looked at him again "You know, there's still one soul who cares about you."

"If you're about to mention, Cynder…then don't" Leon stated.

"You can't keep pushing her away forever."

"No, but I can keep her at arms length at least until one of us dies." Elektra gave him a disgusted look. before storming off to the exit.

"You truly are a remorseless bastard." One of the cheetah guards said to Leon.

"You do realize that I an easily get out of these chains and snap your neck, right?"

"You're bluffing."

"Willing to wager your life on that?" Leon asked. The cheetah didn't answer, "I thought not."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

_Cynder found herself deep in the woods. She was stalking a small sheep that grazed just a few yards away. She crouched low under the brush to avoid detection. When she was close enough, she pounced and landed on the sheep's back, sinking her teeth into it's back. The sheep bucked hard and attempted to throw her off. Without warning, the sheep slammed her into a tree. When her head hit the wood, she let go, and the sheep managed to throw her off with one last hard buck. Cynder hit the ground hard and rolled several times before coming to a stop. The sheep disappeared as Cynder rose from the ground, hot tears streamed down her face. "I failed you, daddy." She cried._

_Leon dropped from a nearby tree and kneeled beside Cynder, "You just have to be quicker." He assured her while wiping dirt and tears from Cynder's face. "Here, I have a present for you." He reached into his satchel and pulled out six metal bracers. "These two were my mothers, I just copied the other four from them." He snapped the braces to Cynder's neck tail and ankles; they were a little loose fitting. "You'll grow into them." He said._

_Cynder went to a small puddle and examined her reflection, "I love them." She exclaimed before running over and hugging Leon. "Thank you."_

"_Well, you know how much I hate it when you cry." Leon said hugging her back._

Cynder awoke with a start. Spyro was already up and was taking a bath. He saw that Cynder was awake and smiled. "Care to join me?" He said flirtatiously. Cynder giggled and rose to her feet. She approached the tub and eased herself into the warm water. She dunked her head under a few times to wash her horns before she idled up next to Spyro and rested her head on his shoulder. "So what do you want to do today?"

"Well, I'd like to ask Elektra about my father," She replied, "but I'm open to anything after that."

"Hmm, then I suppose we should do that first," Spyro said, "but how about we stay here a few more minutes."

"No argument here."

Fang and Charlotte walked through the streets together, their tails intertwined. "It's a nice day out." Charlotte observed.

"Yeah, it almost makes me forget that it's winter." Fang stated.

"The first snow should be here soon."

"Yeah." Fang said apprehensively.

"Something wrong?"

Fang sighed "It's just that we should be able to enjoy ourselves…but, how can we when things are this bad?"

" We're going to fight…but not right now. You just have to relax and enjoy the time that we don't have to fight." Charlotte told him.

"I suppose your right." Fang stated.

Twitch and Zephyr made their way to the garden area. It was still under repairs and several of the flower beds were tore up, but Zephyr enjoyed what flowers remained. Their mixed fragrances wafted to her nose, relaxing her. "It must've been beautiful out here." Twitch said.

"Yeah, but I'm sure that it will be again once the repairs are done." Zephyr assured him.

She stopped in front of the rose gardens and gazed at the pink petals. "How much will be left once this is all over?" Twitch asked.

"Don't think of how much we've lost," Zephyr began, "Think about how much we've gained." She said nuzzling him under the chin.

Twitch convulsed but savored the contact, "I love you." He said.

"I love you, too." Zephyr said back before pulling him into a passionate kiss.

Cynder and Spyro flew low over the buildings of the city. Spyro hadn't fully recovered yet, so Cynder had to slow her pace so her mate could keep up. Elektra was just about to enter the building, a bag was strapped to her side, when the two dragons landed near the pavilion, "Oh, what a nice surprise." bowing to the dragons, "how can I help you today?"

"We just wanted to know how Leon was doing." Spyro said.

Elektra looked around, as if someone was spying on them, before ushering them inside the building and closing the curtain. It was then that Cynder noticed the bruises around Elektra's wrist. "What happened to your arm?" she asked.

"Leon woke up." Elektra stated.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry." Cynder said, feeling as if this was her fault somehow.

"It's not your fault, Cynder." Spyro assured her.

"It's not his fault either." Elektra stated. "I don't think he meant to do it."

"I doubt that." Spyro thought to himself.

"We've decided that it would be best not to let the council know until he's fully recovered. I was just about to go administer some antibiotics." Elektra said.

"Can we see him?" Cynder asked.

Elektra sighed, "I don't think he wants to see you."

"I know, but…"

"But you still believe that you can change him." Elektra finished her statement. Cynder nodded and Elektra sighed again, "I don't think you can just make him forget about everything that has happened."

"I don't want to…I just want to show him that the dragons aren't the monsters he makes us out to be."

"Well...he seems to be uncomfortable with having one dragon near him…but three?"

"How about if Cynder sees him, and I'll wait outside?" Spyro suggested.

"Are you sure?" Cynder asked.

"Yeah, I have nothing to say to him." He replied with low growl in the back of his throat

Cynder was about to scold her mate, but Elektra chimed in "Well, I suppose, but don't upset him too much."

"I won't." Cynder replied.

"Well, let's not keep him waiting then." Elektra said. Cynder glanced at Spyro one more time before following the lightning dragoness.

_Leon was surrounded by darkness once again. The warped voice spoke again, "These foolish dragons know not of your true power."_

"_This game is getting old." Leon said, "I will ask again, who are you?"_

_The room flashed brightly and Leon covered his eyes. When he dared to open them again he found himself in an unfamiliar tower that was open to the outside and had a roof that was held up by several pillars. He noticed that he was back in his leather armor, which he was extremely thankful for. A small pool sat in the center of the room, it was filled with what resembled water, but it looked thicker than water. Leon dared to look in between the pillars to the outside area. The sky was blood red and the vast city below was on fire and many dragons lay dead in the streets. "Hmm, interesting." Leon whispered to himself. An ice-cold wind swept across the city, carrying the scent of death, and making Leon shiver. Then something caught his eye; the shadows around the city seemed to shift and move towards the tower. They passed over Leon and gathered at the other side of the room. He turned as the shadows began to change shape. Leon's eyes widened as the shadows manifested into a copy of himself, but this copy had several gashes across its body and pieces of loose skin clung to it. It was surrounded by purple aura that seemed to radiate from its body. It opened its eyes and stared at Leon; they were jet black, with no pupils or irises._

_The copy opened it's mouth and spoke in the warped demonic voice that Leon had heard in his head, "Surprised?"_

"_What…are you?" Leon asked._

"_Isn't it obvious? I'm you."_

"_I think I look a little better than that."_

"_Hmm, perhaps a better explanation is in order. I represent the…darker side of you."_

"_Sorry, but I think I can represent my dark side well enough on my own." Leon was secretly reaching for his javelin, but quickly realized that he was unarmed._

"_You can't hurt me." The copy stated knowing what Leon was trying to do._

"_I beg to differ." Leon raised his hand to fire a bolt of dark lightning, but he found that he couldn't use magic. The copy laughed maliciously and Leon felt himself growing angrier by the minute, "Who are you?" He demanded._

_The copy stared hard at Leon, "I am your evil deeds, your negative energy, and your killer instincts."_

"_I was looking for a name."_

"_Hmm," the copy looked like it was genuinely thinking, "you know, I've never thought about it before."_

"_Well, I can't call you 'Leon', that would be too confusing."_

"_Hmm…I know…Sin…yes, that will suffice."_

"_Very well, Sin. Tell me, where did you come from?"_

"_You created me." Sin stated, issuing a puzzled look from Leon. "Your rage gave me thought, your sorrow gave me purpose, and your alchemy experiments shaped the body you see before you."_

"_If you've been with me since I got my powers, then why haven't you appeared before?"_

"_Simply put, your thirst for revenge has kept me from manifesting."_

"_I have no desire for revenge." Leon stated._

"_Oh, I'm sorry, your thirst for 'justice'."_

"_If that's the case then you shouldn't be here now. My path is still clear."_

"_Then what kept you from killing Cynder?" Sin asked. Leon found himself unable to answer. "You may not see it…but your mind is faltering."_

_Leon thought for a minute before a question popped into his mind, "What do you want?"_

_A smile spread across Sin's face, as if this is what he was waiting for, "I only have a simple question that I'd like for you to answer."_

"_Well, spit it out."_

"_You now know what I am but I wonder…if you truly know what you are." Leon was surprised by the question. He was about to answer, but Sin raised his hand, "I don't expect you to answer now." He then looked up as if he saw something, "You have visitors."_

Elektra and Cynder entered the room. The cheetah guards gave Cynder suspicious looks. "She's with me." Elektra stated. Cynder approached Leon's bed but kept her distance. Leon's eyes were closed and he was breathing somewhat heavily. Elektra pulled out a syringe and approached Leon's bed. She held his arm out and prepared to pierce the flesh. Cynder jumped when Leon's arm snapped up and grabbed Elektra's wrist. His eyes opened and he looked at Elektra, who calmly stated, "Are we going to go through this again?"

"Reflex." Leon stated releasing her arm, she gave Leon the injection, and Leon studied the liquid as it entered his veins, "Two parts Alkanet flower, one part Foxglove nectar, and one part Arrowroot. An antibiotic to fight infection."

"Right again." Elektra stated. Leon looked down and saw Cynder. Once she had finished Leon struggled into a sitting position. "Take it slowly." Elektra warned.

Leon's eyes locked onto Cynder. For a while neither of them spoke, until Cynder broke the silence, "Hey." She said. Leon said nothing and Cynder mentally slapped herself for thinking that that would work. "How do you feel?"

Leon took a deep breath, "I'm being held captive in my own personal hell…but other than that I'm fine."

"Right." Cynder said, expecting that his answer would be something like that.

"You should have let me die in that cave." Leon stated coldly.

"I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"Because you're my-"

"I'm not your father."

"You are to me." Cynder said pleadingly.

"Do I look like a dragon to you?"

"No, but do Spyro's parents look like dragons to _you_."

"They haven't spent the past two-thousand plus years hunting dragons."

"That doesn't matter!" Cynder exclaimed as tears began welling up in her eyes.

"I warned you that your memories would only complicate your life." Leon stated.

"Yeah," she said sniffling "but they were also some of the best times in my life."

Leon sighed, he could see that nothing he said was going to convince the dragon that the only thing that mattered to him was the destruction of her race, "What do you want from me?"

"I want my father back." She replied crying.

"Well I'm afraid you won't find him here." Leon stated. Cynder hung her head in defeat before she suddenly, in a desperate act, leaped onto the bed, and grasped him in a tight embrace. Elektra and the cheetahs gaped at the scene, but Leon just rolled his eyes and whispered into Cynder's ear, "Nice try." Cynder continued to hold her embrace, despite Leon's discomfort. She listened to his heartbeat for a few moments before breaking her hold. She silently got off Leon's bed and made her way to the exit.

She turned around one last time and said "I'm not going to give up on you." Before disappearing through the curtain. A snicker escaped from one of the cheetahs' mouth.

"I will kill you where you stand." Leon snapped, immediately shutting the cheetah up.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Spyro was pacing in front of the healer's den, waiting for Cynder. His mind was a jumbled mess as he thought of his mate. A voice snapped him from his thoughts, "S-something wrong?"

Spyro turned to see Sting emerge from the shadows. Spyro sighed, "It's Cynder."

"Is s-she hurt?"

"No, it's just…I feel like I'm losing her."

"B-because of L-Leon?"

"She considers him her father, and I don't know how to change her mind."

"Why w-would you w-want too?"

Spyro was taken aback by the question, "Because he's a murderer!"

"I-if you w-want to make C-Cynder t-truly happy, then y-you're g-going to have t-to see t-the world through L-Leon's p-perspective."

"And how am I supposed to do that? I already know why he wants to kill us…how much more do I need to know?"

"A-as much a-as you c-can."

"He's not going to open up to a dragon."

"Y-you just n-need to p-push him."

Spyro looked at the ground and thought for a moment before saying, "I will."

"G-good." Sting said before walking back to the shadows. He turned around and said, "She l-loves you v-very m-much." before sinking back into the shadows.

Spyro waited for another couple of minutes before Cynder reemerged. Spyro noticed the few tears that lingered on her face. "Are you okay." He asked.

"Yeah." She replied.

"So, what happened?"

"Nothing…"

"It doesn't look like nothing." Spyro said wiping a tear from her eye.

"It's just that…I know he doesn't want anything to do with me…but I feel that deep down there's still a part of him that cares about me…I just don't know how to get it out of him."

"Don't worry," Spyro said with a reassuring smile, "If there's a way, we'll find it…together."

Cynder looked up and smiled. "Thank you." She said before the two dragons embraced. They didn't notice the mole guard that had approached them.

"Excuse me." He said gaining the couples attention. He bowed before reaching into a small bag and pulling out a flier and handing it to Spyro, "Master Terrador has asked me to let you know the council is hosting a ball starting three nights from now. The entire city has been invited"

"Oh, wow." Cynder said as she looked at the intricate flier.

"Wanna go?" Spyro asked.

"Of course." she said giving him a flirty smile.

"Then, I guess we'll be there." Spyro said turning back to the mole.

"I'm sure that the council will be pleased that you have decided to present yourself." The mole stated before bowing again and departing back down the street.

Leon sat in his bed, contemplating the actions of the black dragoness. "Did she really think that she can solve over two-thousand years of pain by wrapping her filthy talons around me." he thought to himself.

"Aww, I thought it was sweet." Sin manifested himself beside Leon's bed. Leon's eyes grew wide in surprise, he looked at the cheetahs, who didn't seem to notice the entity beside Leon's bed "And no, you're not dreaming." Leon didn't speak for fear that he might seem insane talking to an invisible person…though the more he thought about it, everyone in Warfang probably already thought he was insane. "So, did you feel anything?" Leon looked at him puzzled. "When she hugged you. Did you feel as if you did care about her…as if she, perhaps, really was your daughter." Leon fought the urge to snap at him, and Sin smiled, as if he knew that he had hit a soft spot. "You hear that?" Leon listened hard but heard nothing, "That's the sound of your resolve breaking down before your very eyes." Sin laughed maniacally. He then walked over to one of the cheetahs and stared hard at him, as if studying him. "These warriors are so brittle, so weak…why haven't you just killed them and escaped?" without warning, he threw a punch that passed straight threw the cheetahs head. The cheetah shivered and his ears twitched in response, but he was otherwise unaffected. "Ahh, now I remember, you want to know why this 'dragon council' hasn't killed you yet." He approached Leon again and set his hand on Leon's shoulder, his hand was cold and clammy and it seemed to sap the heat directly out of Leon's body, "Are you sure that that's the reason?" Leon stared daggers at him. "Oh well, it doesn't really matter." He then removed his hand and backed away a few feet "My question still stands, Leon. Think about it." Without another word Sin disappeared in a wisp of shadow.

"Leon?" Leon turned his head to see Elektra looking down at him with concerned eyes. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." he said.

"Are you sure?" She touched Leon's arm and immediately jerked it back in surprise, "Leon, your ice-cold!" She exclaimed.

"I'm fine." He said again.

"Do you want more blankets?"

"No."

Elektra should have known that that would be his answer. He was very uncomfortable with having dragons help him and would never let her know that he was in pain or bothered. "Well, you don't have a choice." She said defiantly. Leon watched as she walked over and pulled several blankets out of the cabinet. She draped the blankets over Leon and he almost instantly felt his body temperature rise. "Better?" She asked. Leon didn't answer and Elektra sighed "Can't you give me that much?"

Leon stared at her for a moment before saying, "Better."

"Good." She said happily.

Spyro and Cynder met Twitch, Zephyr, Fang, Charlotte, and Sting at the dining hall for lunch. "Anyone seen Flare or Crystal?" Charlotte asked.

"There they are." Said when he saw the two dragons enter through the door, they looked exhausted.

"Hey guys!" Spyro called, getting the couples attention. They walked over and sat with the rest of the vanguards.

"So where have you two been?" Zephyr asked.

"We were just hanging out, watching the sunrise, and listening to the birds chirp." Flare stated.

Charlotte giggled, "We both know that you wouldn't do any of those things."

"Then, perhaps, I don't want to tell you guys." Flare said smiling.

"Oh, don't worry," Twitch said, craning his head back, "the claw marks on Crystal's back say everything." Both Crystal and Flare blushed deeply while the other vanguards laughed.

"Wait until mom hears about this." Charlotte said.

"Y-you wouldn't." Flare stammered.

"Relax, I'm only kidding," She said before looking at Fang and smiling "besides, it's not like you two are the only ones who have their secrets." Now it was Fangs turn to blush and the vanguards laughed again. None of them had had this much enjoyment since the first time they met. The dragons conversed amongst themselves while they ate the meat and berries that were set out in front of them.

After a couple of hours, they left and decided to do some sparring on the training grounds. "So, I heard that you guys are starting your training with the guardians tomorrow." Cynder stated.

"Yeah, it should be fun." Crystal said.

"Besides the fact that master Volteer is going to lecture us until we're all fast asleep." Flare said somewhat dejected.

"Probably but listen to him as much as you can." Spyro said, "He_ does _know what he's talking about."

"Alright, _dad_." Twitch said sarcastically.

"Just remember that right after master Volteer's lecture, we have aerial combat with master Cyril." Fang said, attempting to look at the bright side.

"I guess your right." Flare agreed halfheartedly.

"So, have you guys heard about the ball?" Cynder asked.

"Yeah, we're all going." Zephyr said, "What about you?"

"Yeah, we'll be there." Spyro replied.

"My father said that the council is only using the ball to distract the city from the dark master." Fang stated.

"And he's probably right…but who cares? Why can't we believe that everything's okay, if only for one night?" Charlotte asked.

Fang sighed, "I suppose you're right…again."

"So, Sting, who're you going with?" Cynder asked

"I-I uh…"

"You haven't told them about Frost yet?" Fang asked staring at his brother skeptically.

"W-well, I-I was g-going too."

"Who's Frost?" Zephyr asked.

"An ice dragoness who asked him to the ball about six hours ago." Fang replied.

"And what did you say?" Charlotte asked.

"Y-yes." Sting replied.

"Hey way to go, pal." Twitch said, giving Sting a pat on his back with his wing.

"Play your cards right and you might get a kiss." Flare stated, making Sting blush.

Crystal slapped her mate over the head with her tailspade, "Leave him alone."

When they reached the training grounds, Twitch immediately jumped onto the stone circle, "So, which one of you thinks you can take _me."_

"I'm game." Crystal said jumping into the ring with him.

"Flare didn't rough you up enough?" Twitch asked jokingly. Crystal blushed deeply before firing a ball of ice that hit Twitch in the chest and sent him skidding a few feet. "So, that's how we're playing it, huh?" he said before leaping at Crystal. Crystal dodged but Twitch turned around and swung his tail, hitting Crystal in the flank and sending her rolling several feet. She rose up to see Twitch charging her, and she smiled evilly. She dodged again and froze the ground under Twitch's feet. His eyes widened in surprise as he slid across the ring and slammed headfirst into a tree. He tried to shake off the stars only to realize that he couldn't move his head; his horns had lodged themselves halfway through the trunk of the tree. He tried backing up, but to no avail. "Hey, time out!"

"What's wrong?" Crystal asked, approaching him with the other vanguards

"I think…I think I'm stuck." Twitch said, embarrassed. The other vanguards laughed at the lightning dragons predicament. "It's not funny, guys." Twitch whined.

"Your right…it's hilarious!" Flare laughed.

"Seriously, I need some help here."

"Okay, okay." Crystal giggled, before placing her paws on Twitch's shoulder and pulling back hard.

"Ouch!" Twitch yelled, but he didn't budge from the tree.

"Here let me help." Zephyr stated before coming up behind Twitch, resting her chest on his back and wrapping her forelegs around his waist.

"Not to be rude, but aren't _I_ supposed to do that to _you_." Twitch said jokingly.

"Just keep your mouth shut, lover boy." Zephyr said, "Okay, on three. One, two, three!" Crystal and Zephyr pulled hard, and Twitch's horn was yanked free. The three dragons rolled across the ground, when they stopped Zephyr opened her eyes to see that Twitch was on top of her smiling flirtatiously.

"That's more like it." He said.

"A simple 'thank you' would be enough." Zephyr said.

Twitch reached down and kissed her on the snout, "Thank you."

"Hey, can't you guys do that later!" Flare called, helping Crystal up.

"You're one to talk!" Twitch called back. Making the other vanguards laugh.

None if them knew the danger that lurked in the burning plains as Malefore and his orcs prepared for the war ahead.

"What do you mean you didn't find him?" Malefore asked stomping his massive paw on the floor.

"Master, his body was nowhere to be found." Gwar said, somewhat frightened.

"If he's still alive, then the first thing he'll want to do is shut off his machines." Malefore stated, "We can't let that happen."

"I can assure you that there is no way he could have survived his injuries."

"I won't believe that until I see a body." Malefore stated. "What about the dark crystals?"

"We've found a mine not too far from here on Leon's charts."

"Good, have a few orcs start digging."

"Yes, master. We've also gotten the battalion prepared we're ready to commence the attack."

"Have you appointed a general?"

Gwar was taken aback by the question, "Uh…I thought that…I was going to lead them."

"Of course not…I can't have my new _captain _getting killed in battle yet."

"Captain." Gwar marveled at his new rank, "Master, thank you!"

"I'll expect you to attack soon…we don't want the other dragons to think that I've gone soft."

"Of course, Master." Gwar bowed.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The vanguards spent several hours sparring with each other. They decided to call it a day when the sun finally set. They reentered the dining hall, which was crowded with dragons, and managed to find an empty table.

"You're getting better with your flame breath, Charlotte." Spyro observed as they sat down.

"Thanks, I've been practicing." She replied smiling. The moles set meat, juice, and various berries in front of each dragon. They ate ravenously, as their sparring gave them quite an appetite. When they were done, Twitch sighed, satisfied.

"Man I'm _stuffed._" He said.

"Yeah," Zephyr began, "Come on, time for be-"

A mole burst loudly through the main door, catching every dragon's attention "Orcs!" He screamed.

The entire dining hall came too life as the guards frantically exited the hall. "Come on!" Spyro yelled before he and the vanguards ran out of the hall. Outside, the sounds of flapping leather could be heard as dreadwings filled the sky. They resembled bats, but were much larger and they served as transport for the dark master's forces. One of the dreadwings dropped a large container, which burst open and released several armed orcs. Twitch zapped one of them with a bolt of lightning, but another large container dropped behind them, releasing more orcs. They attacked the vanguards with swords, maces, and chained blades. One orc swung at Zephyr, who dodged to the left, and fired an earth bullet that crushed the orcs ribcage and sent his limp body several feet into the air. Another orc leaped at her from the side, but Flare stepped in and blasted the orc away with a fireball.

Around the vanguards, dragons fell to the hands of the dreadwings. One tackled a dragon in mid-air and sank its long fangs into the dragon's neck, piercing its jugular and causing it to drop dead to the streets below. The dreadwing was preparing to attack another dragon when a tailblade penetrated his back, it let out a load shriek as it fell to the ground.

"Nicely done, Anima." Nitro stated.

"Praise me later, we still have work to do." Anima replied before he and the other council members dashed into battle.

"Look out!" Crystal screamed before firing an ice spike that impaled the orc attempting to attack Fang from behind. Sting parried a blow with his tailblade before consuming the orc with shadow fire. Spyro zapped another orc that tried to attack Cynder, but another orc caught Spyro off guard. Spyro saw the blade and tried to dodge it but it still managed to leave a gash in his flank. Cynder's eyes narrowed into feral slits as she saw the blood of her mate. She spat a glob of venom that hit the orc and began burning the flesh off his chest. Spyro finished the orc off with an Ice spike through its eye.

An orc kicked Crystal in the hard in the stomach and she rolled across the ground. The orc leaped at the fallen dragoness only to be met by a pillar of earth that sent it flying up into the air and coming back down to the earth below with a sickening splat. "You okay?" Zephyr asked helping Crystal to her feet.

"I'm fine, thanks." Crystal replied

None of the dragons on the battlefield noticed the four orcs that entered the healer's den.

_Leon was once again at the top of the tower. "So how are you coming with answering my question, Leon?" Sin manifested himself in front of Leon. Leon gave him a blank stare, "Don't tell me you've forgotten already."_

"_You want to know if I know what I am." Leon said._

"_Oh good, you had me worried for a second."_

"_Of course I know what I am…I'm a human."_

"_Not the answer I'm looking for." Sin said, shaking his head. Leon was about to say something else but a tremor rocked the entire city, causing both Leon and Sin to stagger in place._

"_What are you doing?" He asked._

"_Wasn't me." Sin said. He looked up as he did last time and said, "Uh oh."_

Elektra was taking shelter in the healer's den with the dragons that were too young to fight. The two cheetah guards were frantically glancing between Leon and the doorway. Another tremor roused Leon from his sleep, and also tipped over a medicine cabinet. The sound of breaking glass distracted the dragons and the cheetahs long enough for the four orcs to burst into the room and quickly plunge their blades into the cheetah guards. Two orcs leaped for Elektra, who fired a bolt of lightning. The lightning killed one orc but the other one pinned Elektra to the ground and held her jaw shut. One of the orcs eyed the dragoness and the small dragons that cowered in the corner before his eyes fell upon Leon, "Well, what a surprise. We've been searching for you ever since the dark master was released."

"And here I am." Leon said staring hard at the orc.

"Yes, but I doubt the dark master would believe that you let yourself get captured by the dragons."

"Hey, Leon." Sin manifested himself next to Leon and pointed to the table, where his weapons and armor lay, before disappearing again.

"I wonder what the dark master would say if we brought your corpse back with us, maybe he'll promote us." The orc pondered.

"Hey…can I kill this one now?" The orc on top of Elektra asked.

The first orc smiled at Leon, "I suppose we can at least let you watch as we kill these dragons."

"How kind of you." Leon said. He was secretly concentrating his energy on his javelin. It slowly slid out from under his armor and floated in the air, it rotated until its tip was pointed at the orc that was on top of Elektra.

The orc put its blade to Elektra's chest. "I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer." Elektra's eyes grew wide in fear. The orc raised its sword and Leon saw his chance. With a flick of his wrist the javelin extended. The orc, hearing the sound of the crystal grinding against the hilt, looked up. Leon gave another flick of his wrist, sending the javelin completely through the orc's eye and impaling the other two orcs, pinning them to the wall. Leon flicked his wrist again and the javelin flew backwards and snapped the chain restraining his left arm. He grabbed the javelin and swung hard, snapping the chain that held his right arm before slowly rising off of the bed. He kept the sheet wrapped around himself as he approached Elektra. She was still frozen in fear despite the yells of the young dragons warning her of Leon's approach. She came back to her senses when Leon pointed the cold tip of his javelin at her neck.

Elektra looked at him with pleading eyes as Leon contemplated his next move. After a moment that seemed like hours, Leon brought his javelin away from her neck and said, "Get out."

Elektra rose off the floor and began ushering the children out of the room. She glanced at Leon one more time before leaving the pavilion to find a safer place to hide.

It took Leon about fifteen minutes to put his armor back on; he was glad to be clothed again. As he was fastening his dagger to his leg, Sin appeared, leaning against the wall, an evil smile on his face. "That's twice now that you've let a dragon live."

"Shut up." Leon said as he straightened up and headed for the door.

"So…what will you do now?"

Leon paused mid-step and thought for a moment, "I'm going to deal with these orcs." He made his way to the exit without looking back. When he got outside, he noticed a few orcs and dragons lay dead in the middle of the streets. An explosion caught Leon's attention, and he carefully made his way through the streets toward the sounds of battle.

The council's aerial battle had taken a turn for the worst when dreadwing riders joined the fray. Nitro and Frigid began firing ice spikes at the dreadwings hitting two of them and causing them and their riders to fall to their deaths. Apathy and Anima breathed clouds of shadow fire that consumed several dreadwings. A dreadwing and its rider managed to catch Anima off guard and the orc rider slashed with its sword, leaving a long gash along Anima's back. Anima roared in pain and slashed with his tailblade, severing the dreadwing's wing and sending it shrieking to the ground. Gaia shot another dreadwing down with an earth bullet, but she failed to notice the dreadwing and rider flying at full speed from the left. It tackled her and they both went spiraling towards the ground in a mass of claws and fangs.

"Gaia!" Frigid yelled as he watched his life-mate fall out of the sky. He attempted to break away from the fight to help her, but found his path blocked by two more dreadwings.

As Gaia and the dreadwing spiraled to the ground the orc attempted to stab the dragoness, but she move her head to avoid the blow. As they continued falling the dreadwing got the upper hand and managed to get on top of Gaia. The earth dragoness opened her wings to try and slow her decent, but it didn't help much. She slammed into the ground hard, breaking both her wings with a loud snap and sending up dust and debris. As the dust cleared, Gaia cracked open her eyes only to see the dreadwing still on top of her staring down at her with blood lust in its eyes. The orcs rider smiled evilly before giving a short grunt. The dreadwing opened its mouth and prepared to end the Gaia's life with one bite, but it never got the chance, as a streak of purple lightning struck it from the side. The beast and its rider convulsed wildly on top of Gaia before falling to the side, dead. Gaia rose to her feet and was surprised to see Leon standing a few yards away. The human and dragon locked eyes with each other for a moment before another explosion broke their concentration.

Gaia looked back at Leon and asked, "Will you fight with us?"

"For now." Leon replied coldly. Gaia nodded her head and the two made their way through the city.

The orcs seemed to come out of the walls and attack the vanguards. Just when one would drop dead at the dragons' feet, two more seemed to jump in and take its place. "They just keep coming!" Charlotte yelled before setting another orc on fire.

"Just keep fighting!" Spyro yelled back. He then shot an earth bullet at an attacking orc sending it rag dolling into two of his fellow soldiers. Crystal ducked under a chained blade as it whizzed over her head, and froze the attacking orc in place, allowing Zephyr to smash it to pieces with her tailmace. A group of five orcs ran at them from their flank.

"Look out!" Twitch yelled. Suddenly, a massive gust of wind blew the orcs into the air before a large slab of stone lifted out of the ground and crushed the falling orcs against the wall.

The vanguards looked to the left to see Gaia and Leon approaching them. "Mom?" Zephyr said surprised.

"Master Gaia, What are you doing with _him?" _Flare asked giving Leon a low growl.

"They'll be time for questions later," Gaia replied, "but right now, we need all the help we can get."

The vanguards looked at Leon again for a moment before nodding their heads reluctantly, Cynder smiled knowing that this might be what Leon needed. Just then, several more containers dropped around them, releasing more orcs. They stared at the opponents before them tightening their grips on their weapons, and growling menacingly. Leon and the dragons got into defensive positions and the orcs rushed forward. One slashed at Flare, who ducked before stabbing the orc through the chest with his tailspike. Another orc swung its chained blade at Gaia, but she jumped back before spinning around and swatting the orc with her tailmace. Leon parried a blow from another orc and thrust his javelin forward, piercing the orc through the roof of its mouth and out the top of its skull.

Two dreadwing riders observed the fight below. The one on the right spoke, "Sir, isn't that-"

"Indeed." The one on the left interrupted. "Signal the retreat." The one on the left bellowed loudly and the orcs began dispersing. The bellow distracted Leon allowing an orc to swing his chain blade and leave a long deep gash in his side. Leon stifled a scream and glared angrily at the orc, who only smiled at his suffering. He swung the blade again but this time Leon managed to grab the chain as it whizzed by. The orcs eyes widened as an evil smile spread across Leon's face. His hand emitted dark lightning that traveled down the chain and through the orc. The orc convulsed wildly and was dead within a few seconds, but for Leon this was about sending a clear message. He focused his energy and increased the voltage, causing blood to pour out of the orcs eyes, nose, and mouth. Then the orc exploded, spraying blood and guts everywhere and painting the spot where the orc was standing red. The vanguards gaped at the spot where the orc exploded. Any remaining orcs where picked up by the dreadwings and fled from the dragon city.

"Gaia! Zephyr!" Frigid landed and immediately ran over and hugged his life-mate. "I thought I lost you."

"He saved me." Gaia said, looking at Leon. The vanguards stared questioningly at Leon, who paid them no mind as he examined his wound.

Frigid stared hard at Leon, before saying, "I guess I owe you my-"

"I don't want your thanks." Leon cut the ice dragon off.

Frigid was about to say something but the other dragons quickly surrounded them, growling at Leon, who quickly shifted into a defensive position in expectation of an attack. For a while everything was silent, until the dragons started calling out Leon.

"He's the cause of all this!" one dragon shouted.

"I say we kill him now, before he releases another homicidal dragon." Another dragon chimed in. It wasn't long before the other dragons took their shots at Leon until a massive roar erupted from the crowd. Terrador led the council through the crowd and Leon straightened up as the dragons approached him. Anima's death glare did not go unnoticed by Leon as Terrador stopped in front of the human. He stared hard at him, studying him, but Leon did not care.

"You should go back to the healer's den," Terrador stated. Leon stayed silent and Terrador sighed, "Why don't you just make it easier for us…and yourself?"

Leon stared hard at the earth guardian. Behind him, Fang was watching with extreme interest "Come on, give them a reason." He thought to himself.

Next to him, Cynder was digging her claws into the stone nervously. She looked at her mate, "Spyro…"

Spyro looked at back at her and shook his head, "It's his decision now."

Leon continued to stare hard at the dragon for a few more moment before taking a deep breath and relaxing. His retracted his javelin and clipped it to his belt without taking his eyes off of the earth dragon.

Terrador relaxed and two cheetah guards carefully approached Leon. They pulled his arms behind his back and shackled his hands together. "Take him back to the healer's den." Terrador ordered. The two cheetahs nodded and began taking Leon back down the street. Cynder watched as they disappeared into the night and sighed with relief.

Terrador then turned his attention to the crowd, "Come…we must bury the dead."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

The dragons spent the night, and most of the following day, cleaning up debris, burying the bodies of cheetahs, moles, and dragons, and burning the bodies of the orcs. It was a task that no one had wanted to do, but they knew it had to be done.

Spyro and Cynder walked with Terrador down the streets as night began to fall on Warfang. A cloud of depression set over the entire city, and it showed in the faces of passing dragons "How many died?" Cynder asked.

Terrador let out a pained sigh, "Twenty dragons, fifteen cheetahs, and seventeen moles." Spyro and Cynder both turned their heads to the ground, "You and the rest of the vanguards did all that you could." Terrador stated, "And Elektra tells me we would have lost many more if it wasn't for the actions of your…father." Cynder looked up at Terrador, who smiled at her reassuringly.

"So, what happens now?" Spyro asked.

"Well…we've moved the ball to next week to give families some time to mourn. The other vanguards have officially started their training. We decided not to put that off any longer."

"What are we going to do about the dark master?" Cynder asked.

"We will see if Leon will cooperate with us against him. Perhaps he knows how the dark master has become so powerful." He then stared hard at Cynder, "I cannot deny that he saved many lives last night, but that does not change the fact that he has dedicated his very being to destroying us all, and I think that he still intends to follow through on that."

"I know." Cynder stated sadly.

"Hey," Spyro bumped his mate with his wing, "don't lose hope." She smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

The trio approached the dining hall and Terrador turned to the two dragons, "The council and I have some business to attend to." Spyro and Cynder bowed to the earth guardian and watched him go before entering the dining hall. The dragons there all had the same morbid expression. Some of them nodded respectfully to the couple as they walked by, but some seemed to eye Cynder with distaste. They found the other vanguards sitting silently at one table. The food in front of them had barely been touched.

"Hey guys." Spyro said as he and Cynder joined them at the table. They nodded at them but were otherwise unresponsive. "How are you holding up?"

"Terrible." Charlotte replied.

"We did our best." Cynder said reassuringly

"We know it's just…" Charlotte's words trailed off.

"None of us have ever seen war before." Twitch finished her sentence.

"And none of us have seen so much death before." Zephyr added.

Spyro nodded understandably, "Its not something you ever get used to."

"Is it always going to be like this?" Zephyr asked.

"Only until we defeat the dark master."

"And how long will that take?" Flare asked, "You all saw what the dark master is capable of."

"There's still hope." Cynder said reassuringly.

"Yeah," Fang said sarcastically, "unfortunately it's in the hands of a monster."

"Fang!" Charlotte scolded.

"It's alright, Charlotte." Cynder said.

"What part of this is 'alright'?" Fang exclaimed.

"You know what? Fang's right!" Twitch said, "We almost got killed by that maniac and now _you_ act like he's our only hope!" The dragons in the dining hall turned their attention to the vanguards.

"Twitch!" Zephyr scolded

"Everything that's happened… everything… it's all _his _fault!" Flare yelled.

The other dragons around the hall murmured in agreement, all except for Spyro, Crystal, Cynder, Charlotte, and Sting.

"Why don't we just march in there and slit his throat now?" Fang asked. Without warning Cynder leaped over the table and tackled the black dragon. The two dragons rolled across the floor, scratching and clawing at each other. Cynder managed to get her feet under the black dragon and she kicked hard, flipping the dragon over her head. Fang landed hard on his back. He quickly got to his feet and attacked Cynder. Cynder prepared to dodge but she didn't have to, as Spyro tackled the black dragon before he could get close. He pinned the Fang to the ground and glared hard at him.

"That's enough!" He screamed. Cynder had tears of frustration falling from her eyes and she stormed out of the dining hall.

Spyro looked up to see his mate leave and followed after her, calling her name. Fang picked himself off the ground only to see that his twin was standing over him, "You're n-no d-different than d-dad."

"Why would I want to be?" Fang asked.

"Because h-he's a-an insensitive b-bastard too."

"How dare you talk about our father like that!" Fang stomped his paw on the ground.

"W-we may be t-twins, but i-it's obvious to m-me now that I'm n-nothing like you." Without another word he followed after Cynder and Spyro.

Charlotte and Zephyr also made their way to the door, "Charlotte, where the hell do you think your going?"

"You know what, Flare? I was sad when dad died, but now I'm glad, because if he's seen what you've become…and how you treat your friends…he might've killed himself." Charlotte replied. Flare gaped at his sister's words. "And Fang, I thought you were a nice guy…but now I see that I couldn't be more wrong."

"Same goes for you, Twitch." Zephyr began, "Feel free to come find us once you've realized what friendship really means." She then turned to Crystal, who kept her head down. "What about you, Crystal?"

Crystal's head snapped up in surprise, "I-I don't know." She said as tears began filling up her eyes and running down her cheeks, "I don't want to choose between my friends."

Charlotte looked sympathetically at the ice dragoness "Hey, its okay…we understand." She then turned sharp eye to Fang "Later, jackass." She said before she and Zephyr stormed out of the hall.

Spyro flew as fast as he could. Cynder immediately sank into shadow once she had gotten out of the building and Spyro was hoping that she was going back to their bedchamber at the temple. He landed on the balcony and burst into the room. "Cynder!" He called, but there wasn't any answer. He searched frantically through the darkness, but Cynder was nowhere to be found.

"Spyro!"

Spyro turned around to see Zephyr, Charlotte, and Sting land on the balcony. "Where's Cynder?" Zephyr asked.

"I don't know." Spyro replied.

"You don't think she'd leave the city, do you?" Charlotte asked.

"I don't know." Spyro said again. His thoughts flashed to his mate flying away from the city and into some unknown danger.

"T-think for a m-minute." Sting said, "Where w-would you g-go if y-your friends b-betrayed you."

"Well," Zephyr began, "I'd probably talk to my…" Zephyr, Spyro, and Charlotte's eyes widened in realization of what Sting was getting at.

"Come on!" Spyro called before he and the other three dragons leaped off the edge of the balcony. The vanguards flew as fast as they could. It wasn't long before they finally reached the healers den. They went through the curtain and went straight down the hall. They passed several rooms where dragons were having their wounds treated until they finally reached their destination. Spyro burst through the curtain and immediately sighed with relief. Leon lay in his bed, still in his armor. He wasn't locked in chains and his weapons lay right by his bed as if he was just another patient. Wrapped around him was a whimpering black dragoness, soaking Leon's chest with her tears. Elektra stood to the side with a confused look on her face.

"Oh good," Leon began, "perhaps you can tell me why this one barged in here, crying, and flung herself at me."

"Cynder…" Spyro began.

"I'm not letting Fang and Anima take him!" She cried.

"Who the hell is she talking about?" Leon asked.

"Just shut up and let me deal with this!" Spyro growled at him before turning his attention back to his mate, "Cynder no one's going to hurt him here. Elektra will make sure of it."

"Absolutely." Elektra chimed in.

"Can someone explain to me what's going on?" Leon asked forcefully.

Spyro glared at him for a moment before taking a deep breath and relaxing. He explained what was had happened in the dining hall and ended his story with, "Ever since we rescued her from Moonlight falls, she's been defending your sorry ass."

"That's horrible!" Elektra exclaimed.

"So, this black dragon and his father want me dead…well, more than the other dragons, that is." Leon observed.

"Exactly." Spyro said.

"Then let them try." Leon said coldly.

"Don't talk like that!" Elektra scolded.

"And who are you…my mother?" Leon asked looking at her.

"No, I'm your friend."

"No, you're a dragon who, for some odd reason, wanted to save the person who has tried to wipe her race off the face of Avalar, for a long, long time. You can't be 'friends' with the ones you want to kill, and you, most certainly, can't be the father of one." He looked back at Cynder who only tightened her grip on him.

"If you truly hate dragons, then why didn't you kill me, and all those hatchlings when you had the chance?" Elektra asked skeptically. Leon found himself unable to answer and Elektra smiled victoriously, "You know that you shouldn't blame us for what happened over two thousand years ago, and your conscience is stopping you from harming innocent dragons."

"You willing to bet your life on that?"

"Actually, yes I am."

Spyro expected Leon to attack but instead he just scoffed and shook his head, "Foolish dragons."

"Look, Cynder, just tell us what you want us to do?" Spyro asked pleadingly.

"I-I don't know." She said finally calming down.

Leon took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose between his index finger and thumb. "Would it…would it make you feel better if you slept here tonight?" The room froze in shock at what Leon had offered. Cynder looked up at Leon, who turned his head away from her, "Don't think that I've given up on my goal…but if it would truly make her happy…then I suppose I'll allow it."

"Is that okay?" Spyro asked Elektra.

"I…I don't see why not." Elektra stammered, "You can also stay in that bed if you'd like." She indicated to the bed next to Leon.

"I'd like that, Thank you." Spyro said. he did not trust his dragoness with Leon, for obvious reasons. He hopped in the bed and watched as Leon cradled Cynder in his arm. She cooed before falling asleep, exhausted from crying.

"We'll leave you three alone." Zephyr said as she, Sting, Charlotte, and Elektra left the room

Spyro stared hard at Leon, before falling asleep. Leon tried his best to forget about what he was doing. He slowly drifted off to a deep sleep.

_Leon found himself, once again, on the top of the unknown tower. Sin manifested across the room, "You must be jok-"_

"_I don't want to hear it." Leon cut him off._

_Sin laughed and shook his head "So, have you found the answer to my question yet?" Sin asked._

"_I told you, I'm a human."_

"_And I told you that that's not the answer I was looking for."_

"_Too bad…that's the only answer you're going to get."_

"_Hmm, I guess you're still not ready." Sin said._

"_Ready for what?" Leon asked skeptically._

"_Where do you think we are right now?"_

_Leon looked around, "I'm not sure."_

_Sin laughed evilly, "Dear Leon, this is your future."_

"_My…future?"_

"_Indeed…this is what will come to pass if you continue along your path. I would think that all the dead dragons would give it away."_

"_So, what exactly do I have to do to make sure that this comes to pass?"_

"_I could tell you…but what fun would that be?" Sin said smiling. Leon glared at the him and Sin only seemed to smile wider at this. "All you need to know is that you need my help to do it." A red lightning bolt distracted Leon, and when he turned back, he found that Sin was now only a few feet from him. "So, what'll it be, Leon?"_

_Leon looked at the ground and thought for a moment before looking back at Sin, "I'm listening."_

**To be continued…**

**And that's the end of the first book. Tell me what you guys think. Book 2 coming soon.**


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